What recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of antisocial behaviour orders.

What recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of measures to combat antisocial behaviour.

Nobody should have to suffer antisocial behaviour. On 8 May I announced new measures to bear down on the most persistent offenders, tackle antisocial behaviour on public transport and make sure that the many tools and powers that we have created for the agencies over the past 10 years are being used appropriately and effectively.

With 60 per cent. of ASBOs being breached among juveniles and less than 20 per cent. being accompanied by individual support orders, and the Children's Commissioner's report this morning, which criticises the effectiveness of ASBOs and points out that they are drawing more and more children into the criminal justice system, is the Home Secretary convinced that we have the right balance of measures in the toolkit to tackle antisocial behaviour? I accept that ASBOs should be there.

Oh good; I welcome the Liberal Democrat U-turn in accepting that ASBOs should be there. A breach of an antisocial behaviour order means that people know who has one, they are reporting when the perpetrator is not fulfilling the conditions imposed on them, and that person is being hauled back to court and often facing custody. That is the system working—a system that did not exist at all and would not exist if the Liberal Democrats had their way, and which is extremely popular with local communities fighting antisocial behaviour across the country.

Further to the question from Annette Brooke, the Secretary of State will be aware that the number of ASBOs breached by offenders is now at more than 60 per cent. The new guidelines from the Sentencing Guidelines Council effectively ignore the sentencing terms set by this House and by Parliament. Does the Secretary of State agree that the Government's flagship ASBO policy is in disarray and, in respect of that number, in complete collapse?

No, I do not, and nor do the independent National Audit Office, the Audit Commission and others who have looked in detail at the Government's antisocial behaviour policy. Incidentally, they have found, I think, that two thirds of people perpetrating antisocial behaviour stopped it after the first intervention, which could be a warning letter or an acceptable behaviour contract. Almost another third did so after the second intervention, leaving 7 per cent. of persistent offenders, who I believe are a significant problem. That is why I announced further action against them at the beginning of May.

Is my right hon. Friend aware that a police officer in my constituency was assaulted and injured when he was policing some antisocial behaviour caused by drinking in the streets? Will she send sympathies to the police officer, who I think is still in hospital, and say what more will be done to deal with alcohol-fuelled antisocial behaviour on our streets?

Yes, I shall of course send sympathies to the police officer in my hon. Friend's constituency. I do believe that we need to do more, particularly with respect to the persistent possession of alcohol by young people. That is why the issue was a priority in the youth alcohol action plan, which was published just last week by myself and right hon. Friends. We were very clear in that document that there needs to be an escalation, particularly for young people caught in possession of alcohol. The first time, it is clear that parents should be informed. If it happens again, it is clear that people should receive an antisocial behaviour order. Incidentally, a parenting order may need to be put alongside that, because it is important that parents take responsibility for where their children are and what they are doing. If young people are persistently caught in public places with alcohol, it is right that we introduce a new offence of persistently possessing alcohol in a public place to send out a strong message that alcohol puts young people in danger, and that it puts them in danger of committing antisocial behaviour. None of us should have to put up with that.

I am pleased that recent figures show that the number of individual support orders has more than doubled. Those orders, which are granted alongside antisocial behaviour orders, require young people aged between 10 and 17 to attend treatment for underlying problems, such as drug and alcohol abuse, which cause their antisocial behaviour. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is important that applications for those orders are increased? What more can she do to increase them?

My hon. Friend has worked long and hard to make sure that in tackling antisocial behaviour, we nip in the bud the behaviour that causes it and provide the support that is necessary to prevent it from happening. She is right to say that although the number of individual support orders placed alongside antisocial behaviour orders has increased, certainly with respect to young people, that ought to be the case in every consideration of an antisocial behaviour order, so that we can stop the damage to communities and help to prevent young people in particular from continuing such behaviour, which is bad for them and the places where they live.

Residents in Beverley are extremely concerned about antisocial behaviour, as they are in so many parts of the country. Local police have told me that they are frustrated by the small number of individuals who have an ASBO, breach it, turn up in court and are told that if they breach it again there will be serious repercussions, but for whom after they do breach the ASBO again and turn up in court, the repercussions do not seem to occur. Will the Home Secretary reassure the people of Beverley that we will have a joined-up system, meaning that people who breach ASBOs will stop causing so much difficulty on our streets?

Forty per cent. of people who breach ASBOs face custody for doing so. I think that that is right. I announced on 8 May that we needed to do more to join up the range of agencies that deal with persistent offenders. If someone is a persistent perpetrator of antisocial behaviour, people should look at whether their car licence is up to date, whether they have a TV licence and whether they are fraudulently claiming benefits, as has happened, for example, in a pilot in Manchester. All the agencies in an area and all in its community need to focus attention on persistent offenders to stop them making the lives of the people who live around them a misery.

In her reply to Annette Brooke, the Secretary of State rightly referred to the fact that an awful lot of antisocial behaviour occurs on transport, particularly trains. Will she discuss with British Transport police how people using trains can contact them much more urgently than at the present time? It is particularly frustrating if someone dials 999 and is told by Essex police in Chelmsford, "Contact BTP." That is the problem. An awful lot of sexual and racial harassment and other nuisances are taking place on our trains, and people do not know how to contact the police and cannot get a response in adequate time.

My hon. Friend makes an important point. That is perhaps one of the issues that we need to examine in the work that I am carrying out with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport as we consider what more we need to do to counter antisocial behaviour on our public transport and ensure that people get the response that they need in order to counter it.