Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve levels of support and advocacy for victims of anti-social behaviour who have chosen to activate the community trigger mechanism.

The Government is committed to tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour (ASB). We know the serious impact that persistent ASB can have on both individuals and the wider community.

The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (the ‘2014 Act’) gives the police, local councils, and other frontline agencies a range of tools and powers to tackle ASB. This includes the Community Trigger, which gives victims of persistent anti-social behaviour the ability to demand a formal case review, where a locally defined threshold is met, in order to determine whether there is further action which can be taken. The threshold must be no higher than three qualifying complaints of anti-social behaviour in a six-month period.

The Home Office published statutory guidance to support local areas to make effective use of these powers. The guidance sets out the importance of focusing on the needs of the victim and the local community, as well as ensuring that the relevant legal tests are met. This guidance was updated in June 2022 to ensure a victim-centered approach to tackling ASB as well as stronger use of the powers and tools in the 2014 Act. We also updated the guidance specifically on the Community Trigger in July 2022.

In July 2022, we published the ASB principles which will help to deliver a consistent approach to understanding and addressing ASB in local communities.

It is for local areas to decide how best to deploy the powers in the 2014 Act depending on the specific circumstances. They are ch best placed to understand what is driving the behaviour in question, the impact that it is having, and to determine the most appropriate response.

We want PCCs to be in a stronger position to challenge local agencies, align local ASB strategies to their Police and Crime Plan work with Community Safety Partnerships to deliver the best outcome for ASB victims. We also want PCCs to have a role clearly set out in relation to the Community Trigger to give them more power to scrutinise and improve its operation. We are working closely with our partners and intend to implement the ASB specific recommendations through the Community Safety Partnership Review.