News

The government was attacked last week for its failure to consult adequately on the Antisocial Behaviour Bill.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Simon Hughes accused the government of breaking Cabinet Office guidelines, which specify that every government bill should have a minimum of 12 weeks' consultation.

"There is a series of checks and balances that are meant to be built into the House before we legislate to ensure that we get legislation right," Hughes said. "None of these procedures have been followed."


Hughes said it was "sad" that the bill barely mentioned social services, despite them being the most likely to be working with young people in dysfunctional families who were liable to commit crimes.

"We should make sure that social services and education departments have the resources that they need to do what they know works," he said.

Making teachers, local education authorities and education welfare officers behave like police officers would not work, he added, calling for those responsible for supporting young people to be separated from those who will criminalise them.

Shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin said the Conservatives had similar concerns about teachers issuing fixed penalty notices to parents of truants.