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10 October 2013 / Robin Denford
Categories: Opinion
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Right to reply: Out of order?

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Robin Denford raises questions over the reform of ASBOs

I read Tim Lawson-Cruttendon’s article on reform of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) in NLJ with surprise. 

Reform of anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and other tools and powers has been an aspiration of the current government for quite some time. I wrote about the proposed new powers in the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill in an article published last year in Criminal Law & Justice Weekly (see (2012) 176 JPN 399). 

The introduction of ASBOs

ASBOs were introduced to provide a number of agencies, including local authorities and the police, with an additional tool to restrain anti-social behaviour in the communities they served. The reasons for an authority seeking an ASBO were encapsulated by Lord Steyn in para 16 of the judgment of the House of Lords in R (McCann) v Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council [2002] UKHL 39.

It was also noted further on in that judgment at para 17 “that Parliament intended to adopt

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