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Antisocial Behaviour

The Minister makes an important and interesting point that I hope people will note. It is indeed not just young people who are involved, but older people too. Again, however, it is a minority of adults and younger people who do not wish to ensure that society remains calm and do not have the respect for others that we expect. The other point, which my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point made, is that parents also have a responsibility, and we should never forget that. He made that point in a number of telling interventions. The principle behind ISOs is valuable. We should be tackling the root causes of disorderly behaviour, not just the symptoms. Both sides of the debate will agree with that principle, and we have heard that today. With that in mind, I would like to be able to say that the Government have made good use of ISOs since their introduction. However, as we have heard, that has not been the case. As the hon. Member for Stockport said, only 31 ISOs have been issued since May 2004. That point was also made by the hon. Member for North-West Leicestershire (David Taylor). Over the same period, 789 ASBOs were issued to persons aged between 10 and 17. That means that ISOs were issued in only 4 per cent. of cases, which is a startlingly low take-up. We have again heard some reasons for that, and the hon. Member for Stockport made some good suggestions on how to deal with the problem. I note, too, that she has been consistent on the issue, which she raised during Home Office questions last month. Following the somewhat lacklustre response from the Minister for Policing, Security and Community Safety, she said:"““It is disappointing…that so few applications have been made for stand-alone civil antisocial behaviour orders with individual support orders attached.””—[Official Report, 15 May 2006; Vol. 446, c. 688.]" Today, she has repeated that view, which gets to the heart of the matter. Until now, the take-up rate has been too low and too slow. Under the guidance that the Youth Justice Board has produced since May 2004, a magistrates court making a stand-alone ASBO is obliged to impose an ISO where three conditions are met. The first is that doing so is"““desirable in the interests of preventing any repetition of the kind of behaviour which led to the making of the anti-social behaviour order””." The second is purely technical, but the third, which is quite interesting, is"““that the court has been notified by the Secretary of State that arrangements for implementing individual support orders are available in the area””." In other words, it is up to the Government to give the support that the courts need to make a difference.