Clause 20 - Anti-social behaviour orders:
Drugs Bill
2:30 pm
Ms Caroline Flint (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (reducing organised and international crime, anti drugs co-ordination and international and European issues), Home Office; Don Valley, Labour)
That is an important factor. The hon. Lady will be aware that the Government are doing a great deal to tackle the disorder on our streets that is associated with alcohol. We have, for example, raised the fixed penalty from £40 to £80—I hope that that figure is correct—and that is beginning to bite. It is a useful measure—if somebody goes out, not only on Friday or Saturday but on any night of the week, and decides to drink alcohol to excess, it is a sharp sanction that can be implemented quickly. The police prefer to issue fixed penalty notices than to take somebody to the station.
Before an ASBO is issued, we expect to see a sustained period of antisocial behaviour that cannot be dealt with by fixed penalty notices. It does not apply to somebody who is merely picked up, drunk, on one Saturday night; there have to be other factors. That goes for other antisocial behaviour as well. I hear what the hon. Lady is saying about alcohol, and she will be aware that we are considering how we can develop our services for dealing with drug treatment—particularly those for illegal drugs—and how we can better bring them together with measures on alcohol. A number of drug action teams have become drug and alcohol action teams. We must try to deal with the issue without making any commitments that we cannot meet. We chose April 2006 because we need to have time to set up the mechanisms to enable the measure to work in communities. However, we wanted to take the opportunity offered by the Bill to obtain the support in principle for the measure. That will allow us to go back into communities to develop the services.
For now, the powers in respect of drug-related antisocial behaviour will be attached to ASBOs. We shall keep the measure under review and the Secretary of State will have the power to add other matters, as appropriate. In general, ASBOs are used for other antisocial behaviour offences, not just drugs. A lot of people who do not necessarily have a drug problem commit antisocial offences in the community. The Home Office and the Department of Health have worked together on the matter and we believe, despite the figures quoted by the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham, that the measure will be used relatively rarely, given what I have said about young people being covered in other ways. In order to get it right, we need a lead-in time, working with agencies across Government, to work up what will be done in practice. We have an opportunity to ensure that the new civil order is helpful. I hope that we can develop it; it is about having a carrot and stick, specifying what people should and cannot do, and getting to the underlying reasons behind antisocial behaviour, although drugs are not always the reason.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 20 ordered to stand part of the Bill.