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3 Use of ASBOs and other remedies

3.1 We have examined the extent to which local authorities and RSLs use measures other than ASBOs to tackle ASB. Measures considered include court proceedings for eviction, interdicts, Short Secure Tenancies and Acceptable Behaviour Contracts ( ABCs).

Court proceedings for eviction

3.2 The majority of local authorities and RSLs reported having raised eviction action against ASB perpetrators. Scottish Executive statistics show that nearly half of the landlord local authorities (excluding the three who have transferred their housing stock) entered eviction actions in court as a result of antisocial behaviour in 2003/04. More than third (11 of 29) evicted one or more tenants on these grounds during that year (see Table 3.1).

3.3 For those using court proceedings, the actual extent of use was fairly low. In 2003/04, for example, ASB evictions in Scotland totalled only 44 in the local authority sector and 26 in the RSL sector ( DTZ Pieda, 2005). Table 3.1 shows the total numbers of ASB evictions (including abandonments in the course of eviction proceedings) in each LA area. This includes ASB evictions by both LAs and RSLs. The table relates this figure to the social rented housing stock in each LA. Hence, the national ASB eviction rate in 2003/04 was 11.0 per 100,000 social rented dwellings.

3.4 Table 3.1 shows that there is only a weak relationship between ASB evictions and ASBOs. Some 'high ASBO' LAs (e.g. Dundee, Aberdeen) show up as also having a fairly high rate of ASB evictions. In authorities such as West Dunbartonshire, Edinburgh and South Ayrshire, by contrast, eviction rates are relatively high but ASBO rates comparatively low. It is possible that clearer patterns would emerge from an analysis amalgamating data across a run of years. It will, in any case, be important for the proposed case study work to explore the extent to which individualASBO and ASB eviction cases overlap.

Table 3.1 - Relationship between ASB evictions and ASBOs granted, 2003/04

Source: Email survey; Scottish Executive 2002 Based Household Projections; Eviction Statistics from Scottish Executive ( LAs) and APSR ( RSLs)

Interdicts

3.5 An interdict is an Order from the Sheriff Court to prevent a named person or persons repeating certain nuisances (e.g. Acts of violence or harassment). The council can apply for an interdict as an alternative to, or in addition to, seeking an Order for eviction.

3.6 According to the email survey interdicts to counter ASB had (at some time in the past) been sought by 17 organisations - 15% of all respondents. This included 10 local authorities and seven RSLs. Use of interdicts during 2003/04 was very low - only three organisations (Albyn Housing Society, Hillcrest HA, and South Ayrshire Council) had made use of them during 2003/04. This seems at a variance with practice in England and Wales where a similar legal measure - the injunction - is, according to practitioner evidence, still routinely used alongside ASBOs for ASB by public sector tenants (Pawson et al, 2005).

3.7 The consensus among participants in both local authority and RSL focus groups was that interdicts were of very limited value because of the lack of sanctions in the event of breach - crucially, there is no power of arrest ¹¹. This is in contrast to the position in England and Wales where the power of arrest - although limited in extent - has existed since the introduction of the Housing Act 1996. The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 extended the powers of arrest. This allows the court granting an injunction to attach a power of arrest or to exclude a person from specified premises or a specified area where there is the use or threat of violence or a significant risk of harm to any person mentioned in the action. Consequently a power of arrest will be available in cases where there is a significant risk of harm even if there has been no actual or threatened violence. It could include emotional or psychological harm. The existing provisions, which were repealed, only allowed a power of arrest when there was either violence or threatened violence together with a significant risk of harm.

Short Scottish Secure Tenancy

3.8 The Housing (Scotland) Act made it possible for social landlords to 'demote' the security of a tenant subject to an ASBO (or where a member of a tenant's household is subject to an ASBO). This involves the conversion of Scottish Secure Tenancies ( SST) to Short Scottish Secure Tenancies ( SSST). Hence, obtaining an ASBO could make it easier for a social landlord to repossess the property of an antisocial tenant. During 2003/04 a total of nine organisations (seven LAs and two RSLs) had made use of this power. Dundee, North Lanarkshire and Stirling, who all have a high number of ASBOs, had all utilised this power.

3.9 Nonetheless, the majority (69) of organisations replying to the email survey reported that the introduction of SSSTs had made no difference to whether they pursued ASBOs. Twenty-one respondents, on the other hand, said that the possibility of tenancy demotion had made them more likely to seek ASBOs - presumably to support the application process.

Acceptable behaviour contracts

3.10 An Acceptable Behaviour Contract ( ABC) is 'a written agreement between a person who has been involved in antisocial behaviour and one or more local agencies whose role it is to prevent such behaviour'. The contract is agreed and signed by the individual and lead agencies. It specifies a list of antisocial acts in which the persons have been involved and which they agree not to continue. The contract also states the potential consequences of breach, which may include an ASBO or possession Order.

3.11 The extent to which social landlords had negotiated ABCs was considered within the email survey. As illustrated in Table 3.2 thirteen local authorities and seven RSLs had experience of using this tool. It was uncommon for an RSL to use ABCs when the relevant local authority in did not.

3.12 Five LAs - Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire, East Ayrshire, Inverclyde and Perth and Kinross - said that their routine practice was to negotiate an ABC before considering an application for an ASBO. More than a third of RSLs responding to the question (30 of 82) stated that they would negotiate an ABC before proceeding to an ASBO. In Glasgow City this was much higher - over half of RSLs (11 of 20) stated that they would negotiate an ABC before proceeding to an ASBO. This may illustrate a policy decision within the local authority area.

3.13 However, greater weight should probably accorded to the responses of those who had actually used ABCs. This group (13 LAs and 12 RSLs) was almost evenly split in terms of whether it would be 'standard practice' to negotiate an ABC before considering an ASBO application. Perhaps more tellingly, a large majority of the local authorities who had used ABCs (nine of 13) said that such a 'progression' (from ABC to ASBO) was not their routine practice.

3.14 Table 3.2 suggests that there is little - if any - association between the use of ABCs and the use of ASBOs. For example, among the six authorities that sought no ASBOs in 2003/04, three reported experience of using ABCs (see Table 3.2). Hence, these authorities might be able to argue that their apparent 'inactivity' with respect to ASBOs simply reflected their commitment to an 'alternative approach'. At the other end of the spectrum, of the ten LA areas where ASBO applications were most common in 2003/04, four had made use of ABCs whilst six had not. This demonstrates that these two devices are not usually used together. At the same time there is clearly no consensual view that they are simple substitutes for one another. It will be important for the case study work to examine the relationship between ABCs and ASBOs in greater depth, particularly because the introduction of ABCs is of fairly recent origin in most local authority areas and indeed may post date the ASBO data used in this report.

3.15 It was also pointed out by some focus group participants that the term ' ABC' is a misnomer under Scots law. The technically accurate term in the Scottish context would be Acceptable Behaviour Agreements ( ABAs).

Table 3.2: Use of Acceptable Behaviour Contracts by Local Authority area

Source: Email survey; Scottish Executive 2002 Based Household Projections

3.16 There was general agreement among focus group participants that ABCs (or ABAs) can play a useful role in tackling ASB - particularly where perpetrated by juveniles. ABCs were seen by some local authorities and RSLs, as potentially playing an important part within the ASBO process, enabling them to demonstrate to the court that they had exhausted all 'lower level' measures before resorting to an ASBO.

3.17 It was evident that, for most of the local authorities and RSLs involved in the focus groups, deployment of ABCs was a fairly recent development. There was some uncertainty as to the proper role of ABCs within overall strategies for tackling ASB - e.g. whether they should be seen as a standard pre-cursor to an ASBO application, in what circumstances they could be usefully negotiated with adults (rather than young people). Hence, participants saw an urgent need for official guidance on the use of ABCs. Such guidance would need to convince some sceptical local authorities and RSLs that ABCs can prove a valuable tool in countering disorder in spite of their essentially non-statutory nature. The Scottish Executive is committed to producing guidance on the use of ABCs in early 2005.

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