Antisocial Behaviour

I welcome this debate, and I am pleased at the depth in which the Select Committee on Home Affairs has looked into this issue. The report contains many valuable pieces of information and learning. I represent Cheltenham, which may not have much of a reputation as an antisocial place. We are looking forward to the next round of the FA cup, in which Cheltenham Town will face Newcastle United. We understand the fear that will be coursing through Newcastle at the prospect of facing the mighty Robins at home, and we hope that the Toon Army will behave socially, rather than antisocially, when they come to Whaddon Road. Cheltenham has had its share of antisocial behaviour problems, and we have a thriving night-time economy. Like the hon. Member for Hertsmere (Mr. Clappison), I witnessed the thousands of young people who were filling the clubs and streets of Cheltenham at 3 am at the weekend. I was stunned at the scale of the activity and fairly surprised at the amount of drinking in which many of those people seemed to be indulging. A description in the local paper, which referred to this as being like Beirut, is typical of the unhelpful exaggeration of the problem, which sometimes happens. There was clearly disorderly behaviour, and I am sure that there are many fights among drunken people on such nights, but that is not typical of young people who go out clubbing in Cheltenham or elsewhere, many of whom behave responsibly and enjoy a good time. We have to be careful not to condemn an entire lifestyle and generation just because of the behaviour of a few idiots. What worries me far more is what we could call sober antisocial behaviour. Many hon. Members have referred to the instances, which we have all heard about in constituency surgeries, of persistent patterns of harassment, antisocial noise by neighbours, occasional racism and, often, intimidation. I have seen young people throwing rocks at passing cars from an estate in Cheltenham and airguns pointed out of back doors at other people's houses, and I know of instances of airguns being fired. Such antisocial behaviour is the more serious kind, which the Committee sought to investigate and address, yet, all the same, Cheltenham remains a civilized, hospitable place that is generally safe. We need to try to get to some of the facts, and the report is helpful in that regard. Some facts are alarming. The Committee's reports mentions the snapshot Home Office survey in September 2003, which found 66,000 instances of antisocial behaviour in a single day, equating to 13.5 million per annum, or roughly one every two seconds. Even more alarmingly, it reports that the British crime survey has said that 80 per cent. of problems go unreported, which implies some 50 million or 60 million instances of antisocial behaviour in total. I agree with the Committee's conclusion that there is a fundamental problem, although it is difficult to tell whether it is increasing or decreasing. If the numbers have gone up during recent years, that probably reflects an increase in revelation rather than an escalation, but we clearly have a problem in our country and it is right that the Government and all parties are seeking solutions to it. I sound a few notes of caution, however. First, some categories are not terribly helpful. I notice that the Home Office list at the beginning of the report includes ““teenagers hanging around”” and ““people sleeping rough”” among instances of antisocial behaviour. Those are not necessarily antisocial activities. One may be a perfectly legitimate, sociable activity and the other the personal problem or tragedy of somebody who is not necessarily seeking to harm or disturb anyone else. Secondly, many organisations that gave evidence to the Committee highlighted the danger of sucking into the ASB arena people who need help more than they need the judicial process. I take the point made by the hon. Member for Manchester, Blackley (Graham Stringer): some examples cited—children with Tourette's being given ASBOs and so on—may prove on further investigation not to be true. Nevertheless, if any such examples are true, they must give us pause for thought and we should seek ways to prevent them from being repeated. Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty quotes the example of a boy with Tourette's whose ASBO ordered him to stop swearing. The National Association of Probation Officers mentioned a prostitute whose ASBO prohibited her from carrying condoms within a given area. Unfortunately, her drug clinic was in the restricted area, and one of its services was the provision of free condoms as part of its harm reduction strategy. The media have referred to such examples. The Belfast Telegraph reported that"““Kim Sutton from Bath, who has tried to commit suicide four times, received an Asbo banning her from jumping into rivers, canals or on to railway lines.””" Another example said that"““Caroline Shepherd, 27, was given an ASBO in April””" last year"““after neighbours complained about her wearing skimpy underwear when answering her door in Lanarkshire.””" Finally,"““retired teacher Jean Smith, 60, is banned from putting bread out to feed the birds at her home in Burntisland and anywhere in Fife.””" Such instances—[Interruption.] Such behaviour may be annoying, but it is clearly not appropriate for the judicial process. I accept what the hon. Member for Manchester, Blackley said—some of those cases may prove on further investigation not to be true—but the flexibility of ASBOs runs the risk that they may be interpreted in an arbitrary and sometimes rather peculiar way, and we need to ensure that we guard against that. Barnardo's warned against what it called ““continual moral panic””. As I said, in terms of alcohol-related antisocial behaviour, there is the risk that an atmosphere of exaggeration may build up the issue to be worse than it really is, and we need to guard against it. Politicians and the media can choose which aspects of antisocial behaviour policy they want to highlight. There are two essential aspects, one of which is tackling the fundamental cause. The other, which has to act as a backstop, is tackling the behaviour itself if tackling the cause does not succeed. That is the Government's so-called twin-track approach. Many initiatives on the first track that support individuals and communities are welcome. I point to individual support orders and the ““Positive Activities for Young People”” programme. My favourite example of a Labour programme, which I am always willing to quote to constituents as something the Government have done right, is Sure Start. I have referred to it as a positive and intelligent way to approach the underlying problems that later lead to antisocial behaviour.