Labour’s Shadow Justice Secretary have today announced tough measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour.
Speaking at Middle Temple, (London) Steve Reed said that we need “fresh thinking to tackle the tackle the scourge of anti-social behaviour” to ensure that offenders are “met with consequences”.
He went on to say that “anti-social behaviour can leave communities feeling broken and powerless. It leads to a spiral of social and economic decline that a Labour government will not tolerate.”
As part of plans to prevent crime, punish criminals and protect communities, Steve Reed will confirm that a Labour government would:
Introduce clean up squads for fly-tippers: with tough penalties for fly-tippers and establish clean up squads whereby offenders will clear up litter and vandalism they have dumped. They will be given Fixed Penalty Cleaning Notices that will be managed by the Local Authority.
Strengthen community sentences: Labour will increase and strengthen the use of community sentences, achieving a double win by tackling reoffending rates and giving a voice directly to victims and local communities.
Set up Community Payback Boards: The party would also establish Community and Victim Payback Boards in communities where victims and community leaders would oversee community sentences to ensure they are carried out and choose unpaid work that suits the needs of their community.
According to the latest Home Office figures, there were 1.1m incidents of anti-social behaviourrecorded by police last year, equating to 3,000 incidents a day.
Speaking about anti-social behaviour, Steve Reed said:“Anti-social behaviour can leave communities feeling broken and powerless. It leads to a spiral of social and economic decline that a Labour government will not tolerate.
“As Justice Secretary, I will strengthen community sentences to tackle antisocial behaviour and petty crime. Under this government their use has fallen by a half because courts no longer have confidence sentences will ever be carried out.
“Labour will address that by giving victims and community leaders a prominent role in the oversight of the system. Sitting on Community and Victim Payback Boards, they will help choose the work low level offenders carry out to put right the wrong they’ve done. Crucially, they will have eyes on the system; we will ensure that sentences once handed down are swiftly carried out.
“Today, I announce further steps to tackle anti-social behaviour and stop the decline of neighbourhoods.
“Labour will introduce tougher penalties for fly-tippers and those who think it’s acceptable to dump their rubbish on our streets. We will establish clean up squads and require offenders to clear up litter, graffiti and vandalism. Those who cause the mess will clean up the mess.”
This comes as part of a wider speech where he outlined his plans for “end-to-end” reform of the criminal justice system.
In the speech, Reed updated “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” with an approach that is fit for the modern world.
To prevent crime, he pledged that the next Labour government will deliver “the world’s first trauma-informed criminal justice system”, deploying the science of trauma across early life, courts, prisonsand probation to tackle damaging cognitive and emotional development that often finds criminal expression later in life.
Together these proposals will protect communities by tackling reoffending, giving a voice directly to victims and breaking “the cycle of crime for good”.
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