HC Deb 07 July 1997 vol 297 cc601-2
9. Mr. Cawsey

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he is proposing to tackle disorder and anti-social behaviour. [5515]

Mr. Straw

The Government believe that tackling disorder and anti-social behaviour is a crucial element in dealing with crime and making our communities safer. Recent analysis of the 1996 British crime survey showed that the risk of being a victim of violent crime is four times greater in a disorderly neighbourhood than in an orderly one.

Our manifesto set out a comprehensive range of measures to deal with disorder and anti-social behaviour, many of which will be included in the crime and disorder Bill. Those include new community safety orders to give the police and local authorities greater powers to combat persistent disorder, new offences of racial harassment and racially motivated violence, a new responsibility on local authorities to reduce crime and disorder in their areas and measures to tackle alcohol-related violence and drug-related crime.

Mr. Cawsey

I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply and welcome the announcement that yet another manifesto commitment is to be implemented shortly. Does he agree that too many families suffer from the fear and misery that anti-social behaviour brings? Can he confirm that the new community safety orders will give the police and local authorities comprehensive powers to deal with that issue throughout the community, unlike the present iniquitous system, whereby local authorities can and do take action against their tenants for anti-social behaviour, but find that they have precious few powers when the anti-social problem is in the private sector?

Mr. Straw

I can confirm that. My hon. Friend is right to point to the fact that much anti-social behaviour is caused not by council tenants but by private tenants or owner-occupiers. Our proposals for community safety orders will be comprehensive and will apply to every member of the community, regardless of the tenure of his or her home, and the duty to enforce them will be on both the police and the local authority.

Mr. Greenway

How can the right hon. Gentleman expect the House to take seriously the plans that he outlined to deal with anti-social behaviour when he is about to release thousands of criminals on to the streets?

Mr. Straw

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman, for whom I have a high regard and with whom I have often debated, on his elevation to the Front Bench. The advice that I would give him, however, is to come to the House better briefed and ask questions based on fact and not fiction.

Kate Hoey

Does my right hon. Friend agree that many anti-social activities are carried out by young people who have been excluded from school or who are truanting? What measures will he take, with the Department for Education and Employment, to ensure that this problem, particularly in our inner cities, is looked at seriously?

Mr. Straw

I agree with my hon. Friend entirely. She knows that, on Friday last, I visited an excellent project in her constituency in which there was a scheme for educating and giving support to about 40 children who had been excluded from school. There is a direct connection between children who truant or are excluded from school and high levels of crime. We are determined to tackle the problem in a co-ordinated way. I think that my hon. Friend will find that there are important announcements in the education White Paper which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment is due to announce later this afternoon.