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Antisocial Behaviour

The hon. Lady should go away and read the back copies of reports on the Committee stages of the Bill I mentioned, because various derogatory comments were made about PCSOs. As I have said, there were also many other strange comments by Liberal Democrat Committee members; for instance, at one point when other Committee members were expressing concern about antisocial behaviour, a colleague of the hon. Lady—I do not remember whether she was in attendance at the time, so I am unsure whether she recalls what was said—declared that there was no antisocial behaviour in his constituency. That gave us much cause for hilarity, just as the speech today of the hon. Member for Taunton gave my hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool (Mr. Wright) some cause for hilarity. I know the ins and outs of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 fairly well, and I was very enthusiastic about the measures introduced because they addressed my residents’ concerns. Since I was first elected to this House in 1997, a lot of people have raised issues such as vandalism, graffiti, nuisance noise and groups congregating. Back in 1997, there was not the language to address those issues, but an increasing number of Members started raising them, which in part led to the 2003 Act. There are two aspects to the 2003 Act: the behavioural aspect—antisocial behaviour orders, parenting contracts, acceptable behaviour contracts—and the environmental aspect, by which I mean abandoned cars, fly-tipping, graffiti and so on. Since that Act came into force, we have augmented the powers of local authorities and others through the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005. That has given local communities a lot of tools to deal with antisocial behaviour. Although it is tempting to do so, I shall not go into detail about the causes of antisocial behaviour, a few of which the hon. Member for Spelthorne (Mr. Wilshire) alluded to. I may not agree with some of his ideas, but I agree that we have to look at the causes. Many powers exist that enable us to address antisocial behaviour, but as other Members have said to me, enforcement—the use of those powers by local authorities, the police and others—can be patchy around the country. That is my experience. My constituency is covered by two local authorities; unlike that of my hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool, it does not have the luxury of being coterminous. North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire councils introduce different measures at different times, even though the communities affected by those different measures live alongside each other. That creates confusion. Also, the councils and the police do not use their powers to their fullest extent, so the perception in Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Immingham, Barton and the surrounding villages in my area is that the 2003 Act is not addressing their concerns. However, the problem is not the Act itself and what the Government have done, but the use of those powers. Let me give a few examples. The former chief constable of Humberside once told me that he did not agree with the 2003 Act and some of the measures in it. Some councillors told me that they felt that it was an infringement of people’s liberties, so they did not want to use the powers available to them. The chairman of the police authority at that time had similar views. Police community support officers—they have been mentioned today—and community wardens are integral to addressing antisocial behaviour, but unfortunately, when the first round of bidding came in for police CSOs in my area, the then chief constable and the chairman of the police authority decided that they did not wish to bid. Most other forces put in bids for CSOs, but our area did not, and we were left with zero. Members can imagine how that looked. We had councils that were somewhat recalcitrant about using their powers, and a chief constable who did not want police CSOs. One can therefore understand why some local residents are feeling let down by the Act, in spite of the fact that I was on the Committee and am an enthusiast for all the measures. Indeed, even before I was elected as a Member of Parliament, I had campaigned on the issues of community cohesion, respect, pride in one’s neighbourhood and the need to address the antisocial behaviour of a minority who sometimes terrorise the law-abiding majority. Recently, the Grimsby Telegraph, a local newspaper that covers the north-east Lincolnshire part of my constituency, launched a campaign called ““Enough!””, which probably summarises the views of my constituents. They have had enough of the antisocial behaviour sometimes manifested in our communities. To be fair to the paper, it sees this campaign as an extension of the Government’s respect campaign and it is designed to encourage community action. I have mentioned the councils and the police, but community action is as much a part of addressing antisocial behaviour as the other issues that have been mentioned today. The newspaper always includes a link to the Government’s respect website in its coverage of the campaign. To date, some 8,000 people have signed the petition and it was presented to Louise Casey of the antisocial behaviour unit last week. The paper is not trying to come up with solutions, but to highlight some of the problems that exist in the urban areas of Grimsby and Cleethorpes because of quirky decisions made in the past by, for example, the chief constable. The council has been slow to take up the issue of antisocial behaviour. North-East Lincolnshire council has had financial problems and was languishing at the bottom of the league table for performance and, unfortunately, that has had an impact on our community. Things are getting better, I am glad to say. The council has tried to take action, although I do not think that it is taking enough action yet. For example, when I tabled a parliamentary question about how many incidences of fly-tipping there had been and how many fixed penalty notices and prosecutions there had been in response, the answer was a big fat zero in terms of the latter. I do not know of any action being taken to combat noise nuisance, especially at night. As one can imagine, being a resort area we do get noise nuisance at night from, for example, parties with thumping music or cars that just park up outside houses with the music blaring out for a couple of hours. I do not recall any action being taken or fixed penalty notices being issued in such instances. We are making progress, slowly, and that has to be good news. The new chief constable is keen to use the powers and he wants community support officers. My hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby (Mr. Mitchell) and I will meet Chief Superintendent Kevin Sharp of our local division next week to talk about the newspaper’s campaign and what further measures can be taken. My hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole (Mr. Cawsey), who is a former chairman of Humberside police authority, is going to see the chief constable tomorrow to raise some of the wider issues surrounding antisocial behaviour and community support officers. With regard to CSOs, the Humberside police authority area is in an unusual position. We lost out on two rounds of bidding for CSOs, so the question is how we catch up with the rest of the country following the decision not to bid. The decision was unusual, perhaps even unique: I know of no other police force in Britain that decided that PCSOs were not needed. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will be able to do something to rectify the problem. As I said, my local newspaper has been running a campaign to highlight the region’s antisocial behaviour. Will my hon. Friend say whether anything can be done to secure enhanced funding for what is a problem area? Our rate of crime per 1,000 of population is somewhat higher than the national average, and the unusual circumstances of north and north-east Lincolnshire justify additional support. I want to raise a couple of other matters. First, what can be done to help local authorities to make full use of their powers? My hon. Friend may want to discuss that question with colleagues in other Departments, but one element of the problem has to do with education. For example, I have become aware through my correspondence with the local authority that some of the people there do not know what powers are available to them. What can he do to get the message through about the powers that local authorities have? Secondly, I want restorative and community justice to be extended. I welcome the introduction of ASBOs, parenting orders and so on, but some of the people who are guilty of antisocial behaviour do not understand the consequences of their actions because there is no real system of restorative justice. Often, the victims of antisocial behaviour just want to hear the perpetrators say that they are sorry. The people who cover a wall with offensive graffiti may have drunk a bit too much to be able to think straight, but the victims of that antisocial behaviour want to be able to tell them how it feels—and to see them clean it up. An important element of this debate is that people must be made aware of the impact of their antisocial behaviour on its victims. In my area, most ASBOs are imposed after a crime has been committed. That system has its merits, but I believe that many of the people who are given an ASBO are already too far down the line. We should use the antisocial behaviour measures that we have introduced to nip criminal activity in the bud. When behaviour becomes criminal, it is often too late to do anything to change the pattern of offending. I want there to be more emphasis on early intervention to stop people engaging in antisocial behaviour and then going on to commit crimes. Finally, I am pleased to have been able to take part in this debate.