Key Legislation and Policies
This section covers some of the key legislation that governs community safety work. In particular it looks at the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (the legislation that governs how all partnerships operate), and other legislation that may have an effect on your area of work. The legislative framework under which community safety operates is changing, so this section also covers some of the most important changes.
Crime and Disorder Act 1998
The Crime and Disorder Act is the key piece of legislation for community safety because it brought both Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships and Youth Offending Teams into being. It is built on three key principles:
- The purpose of the youth justice system is to cut offending. Action must be taken quickly to nip youth offending in the bud.
- The police and local authority – with the whole community – must establish local partnerships to cut crime.
- Local authorities and other public bodies must consider the crime and disorder implications of all their decisions.
The Act laid out several key principles which partnerships must follow. Important sections of the Act are:
Section 5 which places a joint responsibility on local authorities and the police – known as the responsible authorities – to develop and implement crime and disorder reduction strategies. This led to the formation of Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs).
Section 6 which sets out the requirement for CDRPs to carry out a crime and disorder audit and publish a strategy for tackling, crime and disorder, setting out targets to be met along the way.
Section 17 which requires all statutory partners to consider crime and disorder reduction while exercising their duties. So, for example, the planning department of a local authority must take crime and disorder reduction into account when granting planning permission.
Section 39 which places a duty on all local authorities with social services and education responsibilities to establish Youth Offending Teams (YOTS) for their area. YOTs co-ordinate the provision of youth justice services.
Section 115 which establishes the power to disclose information between statutory partners so long as such disclosure is necessary or expedient for the purposes of the Act.
Important changes were made to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 by the Police Reform Act 2002. Section 97 of this Act requires that Police Authorities, Fire Authorities and Health Service Primary Care Trusts should also become responsible authorities, alongside local authorities and the Police.
As well as setting out important structures for CDRPs, the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 also introduced a number of powers that can be used by responsible authorities. These include:
- Anti-Social Behaviour Orders
- Sex Offender Orders
- Parenting Orders
- Child Safety Orders
- Local Child Curfews
- Police Power to Remove Truants
- Drug Treatment and Testing Orders
- The Final Warnings Scheme
- Reparation Orders
- Action Plan Orders
- Detention and Training Orders
- Home Detention Curfews
Changes to the Crime and Disorder Act
The government announced a review of the partnership provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 in the White Paper – Building Communities, Beating Crime – in November 2004. The overall objective of the review was to strengthen the visibility, responsiveness, accountability, membership and role of local partnerships. The aim was to make them the most effective possible vehicle for tackling crime, antisocial behaviour and substance misuse in local areas.
The Act was reviewed between November 2004 and January 2005 and the report was published in January 2006. The findings of the review fell into five sections.
National Standards: The introduction of a framework of regulations known as National Standards will set out clearly understood minimum standards for the way that CDRPs (known as Community Safety Partnerships or CSPs in Wales) operate in supporting the creation of safer communities.
Structures: The list of responsible authorities within the meaning of the 1998 Act to be extended by secondary rather than primary legislation; roles and responsibilities should be separated to sharpen the functions of different key agencies.
Delivery: The National Intelligence Model (NIM) should be adapted for the partnership context and CDRPs should undertake Strategic Assessments on a six-monthly basis at least, to lead into Annual Three-Year Rolling Plans; Section 115 (data sharing) should be strengthened by placing a duty on responsible authorities to share depersonalised data which is relevant for community safety purposes and already held in a depersonalised format.
Governance and accountability: CDRPs should engage their communities through consultation and regular reporting to the community; Local Authority Overview and Scrutiny Committees should encompass the work of CDRPs/CSPs; a ‘community call for action’ mechanism should be introduced to hold to account those who are responsible for tackling crime and disorder in the area; CDRPs/CSPs should no longer have to send a separate report on their annual performance to the Home Secretary, but are instead required to publish information for the local community.
Mainstreaming: the responsibilities of CDRPs should be broadened to include anti-social behaviour, behaviour adversely affecting the environment and substance misuse; the list of responsible authorities that are subject to section 17 should be extended by means of secondary legislation.
The Home Office began a programme to implement changes to the Act in April 2006. The Police and Justice Act 2006, which received Royal Assent on 8 November 2006, introduced most of the changes to the Crime and Disorder Act. In addition regulations introducing the National Standards will be introduced in summer 2007, along with guidance drawing on effective existing practice. This time frame will give CDRPs time to put the new requirements in place so that new annual three year rolling plans commence in 2008.
