Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014

Part 1 of the Act empowers specified organisations to apply to the courts for a civil injunction against anyone aged 10 or over for actual or threatened anti-social behaviour.[5] Suggested by the government is that civil injunctions might be used for aggressive begging, bullying, gangs, irresponsible dog ownership, noisy or abusive neighbours, public drunkenness, and vandalism.[4] The injunction is a civil rather than a criminal order. A civil injunction can either prohibit or require a person to refrain from activities mentioned in the order. A court has the discretion if to include a power of arrest for breaches of the injunction. Breaches of an injunction are treated as contempt of court.[5] Statutory government guidance provides four tests for using a civil injunction. On the balance of probabilities, the behaviour must be likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress (non-housing related anti-social behaviour); or conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance (housing-related anti-social behaviour); and just and convenient to grant the injunction to prevent anti-social behaviour.[4]

Part 3 of the Act covers police powers permitting the dispersal of people. The powers of dispersal require the authorisation of a police officer at least the rank of inspector. The act only allows authorising dispersal powers when members of the public in the locality are being harassed, alarmed or distressed, or when there is localised crime and disorder. The authorisation is limited to forty-eight hours.[5] Authorising officers should consider the principles of the Human Rights Act.[5] The statutory Government guidance requires consideration of the impact of vulnerable people, the displacement of the problems elsewhere, and if working in partnership with other agencies might provide a longer-term solution.[4]

When authorised to do so, police officers and police community support officers, if permitted by their chief constable, can, in writing when feasible, direct a person to leave a geographical area and not return for a defined time period.[5] The exceptions are people under ten years old,[5] in which case if they are under sixteen the Children Act 2004 allows taking them to their home.[4] A direction should not be given that prevents a person from going to their home, their place of employment, where they are receiving education or training, places where they are receiving medical treatment or any place they are required to attend by a court. The power exists to seize any articles that are connected to the anti-social behaviour.[5] Failing to disperse or preventing the seizure of articles related to the anti-social behaviour is a criminal offence.[4]

PSPO warning sign in Knightsbridge, London

A public spaces protection order (PSPO) is an order which bans specific acts in a designated geographical area in England and Wales as set out in the act. It replaces the earlier designated public place orders, gating orders and dog control orders.[6]

PSPOs are intended to prevent specific acts which would not otherwise be criminal offences. They have been criticised as restricting freedoms and having a disproportionately severe effect on people below the poverty line.[7] As of December 2017, there were 388 active PSPOs in Wales alone.[8]

Research by The Manifesto Club found a 420% increase in PSPO fines from 2016 to 2018. In 2018 there were 9,930 fines issued, 60% of which were from four councils: Peterborough, Bedford, Hillingdon and Waltham Forest. These four councils use private contractors to issue the fines.[9]

Examples include:

• Hackney Council attempted to introduce a PSPO which would have banned rough sleeping.[10] A similar ban was proposed in Newport.[11]
• Salford City Council introduced a PSPO covering Salford Quays, which bans acts including using foul and abusive language.[12] [13] This has been interpreted as a response to football fans.[14]
• Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea introduced a PSPO "to address the excessive level of noise nuisance, annoyance, danger or risk or harm or injury caused by motor vehicles to members of the public" in Knightsbridge.[15]
• Peterborough City Council introduced a PSPO to ban littering, spitting and cycling in specific roads in the centre of Peterborough.[16]
• Kettering Borough Council enacted a curfew banning individuals under 18 from going outside alone between 11pm and 6am.

Part 4 of the Act introduced community protection notices and remedial orders. The aim of them was to challenge ongoing nuisance problems detrimental to a community’s quality of life.[5] The use of community protection notices does not interfere with the obligation of local authorities to issue abatement notices for statutory nuisances.[4]

A person over the age of sixteen, an organisation or business can be issued a community protection notice.[5] The statutory guidance states that the vulnerability of a person should additionally be considered before issuing a notice.[4] Before a notice is issued they must receive written notice warning them about the problem they are causing, and issuing a notice is an option being considered. It is issued by either giving it to a person, organisation or business, leaving at their address, or posting it to them. Community protection notices have three potential purposes, to stop or make them do something, or take reasonable steps towards an outcome. What is expected of them is written on the notice.[5]

Failing to conform to a community protection notice is an offence.[5] The liability of a person, organisation or business for the offence is negated by payment of a fixed penalty notice up to the value of £100.[4][5] If a community protection notice is breached, a remedial order can be applied for at court.[5]

Part 4 of the act empowers the issuing of closure notices and closure orders. Both notices and orders can be applied to residential and other premises. Issuing a closure notice is usually the first resort to dealing with a problem. Closure notices can be issued if either nuisance or disorder has, or may occur at the premises. The notice is in force for a maximum of forty-eight hours. A closure notice can bar any person from accessing the premises, except any residents. The penalty for breaching a notice upon conviction is a maximum of three months’ imprisonment and an unlimited fine.[4]

Closure orders are usually issued in more serious instances. The criteria for issuing an order is that the premises must be connected to disorderly, offensive, or criminal behaviour, or disorderly behaviour in the near vicinity of it. It must be a serious nuisance to the public. An order can prohibit any person from entering the premises, including a resident. The maximum penalty for breaching a notice is up to six months imprisonment and an unlimited fine.[4]

The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 created an offence of obstructing a person issuing an order or notice, officials entering the premises, or people securing it. The maximum penalty is three months imprisonment.[4] The act did no consolidate all closure powers, for example, closure of licensed premises under the Licensing Act 2003, or closure of premises used for prostitution under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.[5]

The Act also created sexual risk orders, which can require suspects to give police advanced notification of intention to engage in sexual activities or face prison sentences. The SROs, requested by police, are issued by magistrates.[17]

The Act also created several new offences relating to forced marriage:

• breaching a forced marriage protection order (amendment to the Family Law Act 1996)
• causing a forced marriage, i.e. using threats, violence or other coercion (not necessarily against the victim) to cause a person to marry without their full and free consent (or any person who lacks capacity to consent even without coercion)
• using deception to cause a person to leave the UK to enter into a forced marriage.

The latter two offences are defined separately for England and Wales and for Scotland. They apply to any marriage ceremony even if not legally binding.