Respect Orders and Antisocial Behaviour

Mark Sewards Excerpts

Wednesday 27th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dame Diana Johnson]

I will certainly add my hon. Friend’s constituency to the list—it is growing, which is always positive. Proposals on retail crime and assaults on retail workers will be included in the crime and policing Bill next year. It is important to remember that people have campaigned for a stand-alone offence for many years, and there is now cross-party support for the offence, thanks to the campaigning of USDAW and the Co-op over many years.

[Mr Mark Sewards (Leeds South West and Morley) (Lab)]

I welcome today’s announcement on respect orders, which will be extremely welcome news for my constituents in Leeds South West and Morley. It is so good to finally have a Government who will deal with the scourge of antisocial behaviour. I have sat with constituents who have been in tears as they explained how their neighbour was making their life hell. Constituents have told me, at my surgery, that the police and the council’s antisocial behaviour teams had no power to act. Respect orders finally offer us the chance to change that. In the Minister’s statement, she said that respect orders would be reserved for the worst offenders. I can think of several people who would fit that criterion, so what reassurance will she give my constituents that it will be applied as liberally as possible?

[Dame Diana Johnson]

The definition that I gave earlier—causing harassment, alarm or distress—will be used when respect orders are applied for. I ought to say that civil injunctions will remain in place when it comes to housing, so those can be used. Respect orders will be only for adults; for young people, the youth injunction will still be available, and there are sanctions within that. There will be a range of ways that antisocial behaviour can be tackled, using either respect orders or the reformed civil injunctions.