Read All About It! The Publication of Anti Social Behaviour orders
Introduction
Congratulations. After several trips to Court you have successfully obtained an Anti-Social Behaviour Order.
The issue of how ASBOs should be publicised has been addressed by the Courts in a number of recent cases, notably the case of R (on the application of Stanley, Marshall and Kelly) v The Metropolitan Police Commissioner (1) and the London Borough of Brent (2). In this case, a group of youths had been made the subject of Anti Social Behaviour Orders. The Council and the Police publicised these orders, placing detail on the community website, printing details of the Order in the tenant newsletter and publishing leaflets containing photographs of the youths which were taken by the Police after an arrest. Three of these youths sought to judicially review the decision to publish their details, arguing that their human rights had been infringed and that the publicity was disproportionate and unnecessary. The Court disagreed, in summary saying that the ASBOs would not be effective at preventing further nuisance behaviour, at deterring others from acting in an anti-social manner or reassuring and informing residents in the area if the details of the ABSOs were not publicised.
The Court did however say that if the Police and local authority did believe that the publicity may infringe the Defendant's human rights, they should then go on to consider whether the publicity would be proportionate and necessary.
In light of this case, in March 2005 the Home Office Anti Social Behaviour Unit issued further guidelines on how bodies should tackle the publication of ASBOs, aimed at hopefully making the decision making process less onerous and bureaucratic. However, in practice the guidelines say that each case should be considered on an individual basis.
The guidance goes into detail about how the publicity should look. Whilst the publicity should be kept simple, the guidance sets out 19 possible pieces of information which may be contained in any publication. All of this information should be factual.
Most importantly, the guidance says that those involved in the decision making process should ensure that the reasons why they decide to publish are fully recorded, giving particular consideration to the need for publicity and the human rights of the defendant and the public. It is important that organisations pay particular attention to this provision and that detailed file notes are maintained. Whilst these decision making notes may not protect an organisation from review by a defendant, they will certainly assist in explaining to a Court why and how the decision to publish was made.
Ashfords has a specialist housing team, who would be happy to provide any assistance :
T: 01392 33 4114
E: housing@ashfords.co.uk
Ashfords is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The information in this article is intended to be general information about English law only and not comprehensive. It is not to be relied on as legal advice nor as an alternative to taking professional advice relating to specific circumstances.
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