Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (Amendment) Order 2018

Lord Paddick Excerpts

Wednesday 12th December 2018 Grand Committee

[Baroness Manzoor (Con)]

My Lords, this order was laid before both Houses on 5 November 2018. It adds Transport for Greater Manchester to the list of bodies that can apply to the courts for a civil injunction to address anti-social behaviour. It may assist the Committee if I give some background and context to the order.

The Government introduced the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 to provide the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of powers to enable them to effectively tackle and prevent anti-social and nuisance behaviour. These powers include a civil injunction which can be issued by the courts against any person aged 10 years or over whose behaviour has caused or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to others. An injunction can include prohibitions to stop the perpetrator behaving anti-socially and positive requirements to get them to address the underlying causes of their behaviour. At present, the bodies which are able to apply to the court for an injunction are as follows: the police, including British Transport Police; local councils and housing providers; Transport for London; the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales; NHS Protect and the West Midlands Combined Authority.

The draft order before us today amends the 2014 Act to add Transport for Greater Manchester to the list of bodies which can apply to the courts for an injunction under Section 5 of the Act. This change follows a request from the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and will help ensure that Transport for Greater Manchester can take swift action to address anti-social behaviour taking place on Manchester’s transport network.

Transport for Greater Manchester is the passenger transport executive body responsible for the co-ordination and management of public transport across the 10 districts that make up the county of Greater Manchester. Transport for Greater Manchester owns the Metrolink tram system that runs through seven of the 10 districts that make up the county of Greater Manchester. It also owns and operates a total of 22 bus stations and provides a range of other bus services. The number of passenger journeys made using the Metrolink network in 2017 was 40 million. On its bus services in 2017, there were a total of 196 million passenger journeys.

Transport for Greater Manchester reports challenges with anti-social behaviour across its transport network. In April 2015, to address concerns about anti-social behaviour, it established the TravelSafe Partnership with Greater Manchester Police and with support from transport operators. The TravelSafe Partnership provides a dedicated team of police officers, special constables and security staff who regularly patrol the region’s transport network to reduce anti-social behaviour and provide high visibility reassurance to passengers and staff. Despite taking steps to reduce anti-social behaviour on the transport network across Greater Manchester, it remains a challenge. The most recent statistics show that in 2017-18 there were a total of 1,692 incidents of anti-social behaviour, which included incidents of intimidating, threatening and abusive behaviour towards passengers and staff.

Transport for Greater Manchester would now like to go a step further in keeping its passengers and staff safe by applying for civil injunctions direct from the courts, which currently it cannot do. The Government believe that the Mayor of Greater Manchester and Transport for Greater Manchester have put forward a strong case for this change, which will also bring their powers in this area into line with those of comparable bodies such as Transport for London. The Government recognise that anti-social behaviour can have a negative and debilitating impact on victims. It is right that the Government therefore do all they can to assist organisations such as Transport for Greater Manchester to take direct action against anti-social individuals on their transport systems, so that they can protect the public. I beg to move.

[Lord Paddick (LD)]

My Lords, I do not think I will be able to speak for very long. I thank the Minister for explaining the order. As she has explained, a civil injunction can be taken out against those causing others harassment, alarm or distress, and the order adds Transport for Greater Manchester to those able to apply directly to the courts for these injunctions, as Transport for London can. Clearly, if the West Midlands and London have this ability, there is no reason that Greater Manchester should not have it as well.

However, perhaps the Minister can explain to the Committee how the injunctions are used in practice. How are they enforced once they are granted? How effective have they been in London, where they have been available to Transport for London for some time? How many times have they been used, and to what effect? I have tried to find out. I consulted the chair of the Transport Committee of the London Assembly and she did not know of any issues around the granting of these injunctions, but it would be useful to know whether this is an effective measure, based on experience in other areas that have had these injunctions for some time.

[Lord Kennedy of Southwark (Lab Co-op)]

I am happy to support the order. The noble Lord, Lord Paddick, asked a pertinent question, which we would like to hear the answer to, about the experience of using these orders elsewhere. But giving the transport authority in Manchester the powers that they have in the West Midlands and here in London is certainly a good thing. As the Minister said, the Mayor of Greater Manchester has applied for these and made a strong case, and the Government have listened to that. I am happy to support the order and I have no questions for the Minister.