The addition of bullying to the list of behaviour for which proposed “antisocial behaviour injunctions” can be applied for follows an amendment to the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill tabled last month by Conservative MP Tracey Crouch.
Anthony Smythe, managing director of BeatBullying, said his organisation is helping the Home Office write the guidance that will be issued on how proposed new injunctions can be used in relation to bullying.
“The aim of the guidance is to help clarify the thresholds in terms of when to use this power to tackle bullying,” he said.
However the use of injunctions to tackle bullying is set to face stiff opposition before it becomes law.
The plans are opposed by the Anti-Bullying Alliance and the Standing Committee for Youth Justice (SCYJ) who say that children and young people could be unnecessarily criminalised as a result.
While the proposed new injunction orders outlined in the bill are not criminal orders, breaching them can result in a custodial sentence.
The organisations are also opposed to another amendment tabled by Crouch last month, which has seen head teachers and principals of further education colleges added to the list of people who can apply for an injunction.
“We feel this sets a precedent of teachers being able to adopt policing powers,” Ali Crossley, press and parliamentary officer for SCYJ said.
“We have had conversations with head teacher networks and we understand that it is not supported by all practitioners.
“There hasn’t been any wider consultation as yet.”
Crossley said the use of injunctions, which are set to replace Asbos, to deal with bullying could result in more children ending up in custody.
“We feel this is quasi-criminalisation because the breach rate of orders is as high as 80 per cent with around 40 per cent ending up in custody,” she said.
“We are basically fast-tracking them into the criminal justice system.”
However BeatBullying claim the injunctions will add a much-needed “middle layer” of powers that can be used to deal with bullying.
“Schools have quite a lot of powers to tackle bullying,” Smythe said.
“We would expect that that once those school interventions had been exhausted, these interventions [injunctions] could be looked at as the next step.
“The measures are civil, not criminal, and they will not lead to a criminal conviction."
Smythe said there are already criminal laws to tackle bullying but that the threshold for them being used is "quite high".
"Bullying can escalate into serious forms of criminality before the justice system intervenes, which is why so many children commit suicide as a result of bullying.
“By intervening at an earlier stage we can reduce the number of children entering the criminal justice system,” he added.
