Antisocial Behaviour

: I heard my hon. Friend's comments on the subject earlier, and think that all of us have to pay greater attention to such matters. They are not just morally wrong but against the law, and we all have a responsibility. I expect the police and those who retail alcohol to take those issues more seriously. In discussions with the supermarket chains before Christmas, the Home Secretary and I, along with others, agreed on the objective of eradicating sales of alcohol to children. The supermarkets have voluntarily set out to achieve that over the next year. That is the way to go; we must set standards higher and make sure that the law is properly enforced. I agree with my hon. Friend that the police need to be fully engaged with that. There should be prosecutions, where appropriate. The new licensing laws have been caricatured as being simply about loosening the controls, but used properly, many of the powers give greater control to revoke and review licences. We intend them to be used correctly. Over Christmas and the new year we had the third of the alcohol misuse enforcement campaigns. Central to that was the test-purchase arrangements: people going to retail locations and testing whether those places are selling alcohol to children. We will publish those results, and the wider results of the AMEC, in the near future. I am pleased that, anecdotally, it seems that the introduction of the new powers has gone reasonably smoothly. That should not deceive us into thinking that the problem has gone away—it has not. It is still there to be tackled, and we must be vigilant in doing so. We will continue to monitor all of those things carefully. I must say to the hon. Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry) that it is both unfair and unacceptable that cases do not proceed simply because the prosecution is not available. If people feel that they have been denied justice, that is unacceptable. In general terms, we are constantly pursuing a more effective, efficient system and administration of justice, to ensure that the courts system works properly. I hope that he will be encouraged to know that there are increasing numbers of specialist antisocial behaviour prosecutors. I must say to my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley that the training of magistrates is not just an important idea: it is mandatory. They should be receiving proper training. We are developing antisocial behaviour courts, so that specialist well-trained magistrates are in a position to deal appropriately with the cases. Remarks were made about the number of community support officers, which will continue to increase up to the 24,000 that we promised by 2008. We talked about the breach rate. The majority of cases in which ASBOs are put in place are successful. The use of the term ““breach”” means that an order is being enforced. We should all be encouraged by that. We will continue to work on an evidence base. It will, not least, be informed by my right hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen and the members of the Committee. Once again, I must say how welcome the report is. Question put and agreed to.