Dispersal of groups, better access to antisocial behaviour orders and permission to apply for them for local authorities, restrictions on the ownership of air weapons for 14- to 17-year-olds and extending penalty notices for disorder to 16- and 17-year-olds all come onto the statute book this week.
To warm us up for the legislation, Home Secretary David Blunkett was in Watford, Hertfordshire, last week thumping the tub for the increased use of antisocial behaviour orders (see p2).
It is understood that he regularly telephones the courts in his hometown of Sheffield asking youth justice practitioners why they aren't unleashing the orders to wider and faster effect. Blunkett wants magistrates and the Crown Prosecution Service to cut through bureaucracy and fast track the process.
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