Campaigners to continue fight against new antisocial behaviour legislation

Under the act, courts can grant a civil injunction to anyone over the age of 10 if they are found to have caused “harassment, alarm or distress to any person”.

Anyone aged 14 who is made subject to an injunction can be sentenced to custody for up to three months if the terms are breached.

Initially, the government had intended to use the act to change the definition of antisocial behaviour to “conduct capable of causing nuisance and annoyance to any person”.

However, this was removed from the legislation after campaigners claimed that it could have meant injunctions being served against children as young as 10 for playing noisily outdoors.

Penelope Gibbs, chair of the Standing Committee for Youth Justice, said that although the organisation is glad the definition of antisocial behaviour was not changed to cover nuisance or annoyance, it remains “very concerned” that children may be targeted under the new legislation.  

“The act allows children to be imprisoned from the age of 14 for antisocial behaviour and for any child subject to an order to be named by the court.

“We are worried by these measures and will campaign for them not to be used.”

The legislation was also previously criticised for proposed powers that could have resulted in children as young as 10 being evicted from their home for bad behaviour.

The original wording of the bill was that injunctions could be used to “exclude” anyone over the age of 10 from their homes if a court believes they represent a “significant risk of harm” to other people.

However the final legislation has been amended so the power of exclusion can only be used against those aged 18 and over.