What progress it has made with the review of the National Antisocial Behaviour Strategy.

The review of the national antisocial behaviour (ASB) strategy is progressing well. The external project board, made up of senior stakeholders, will meet for the first time today to advise government and oversee the review process. The content of and process for the review has been fully scoped and plans have been put in place for communication, consultation, research and reporting and these are now being actioned. A summary of the key considerations and processes for the review follow.
Scope
The following is a summary of the key issues and questions for consideration as part of the review.
Develop an understanding of the use and effectiveness of key measures in the 2004 act
The key issue here is to establish why some measures are being well-used in one area and infrequently in another and whether this is because of differences in local approaches or because there is a problem with the legislation or its related guidance. A prime example is the variation in the use of seizure of vehicles powers. The review will look to gather evidence through research and consultation with local agencies to establish whether the legislation or guidance needs to be tweaked to make it easier for local agencies to tackle specific ASB problems, such as antisocial drivers. Key questions for this review objective include:
Q.1. Why are there variations in the use of the various enforcement measures?
Q.2. How can the measures or their usage be improved to increase effectiveness at tackling antisocial behaviour?
Q.3. Which of the recommendations made by the various evaluations of enforcement measures should be taken on board?
Q.4. Should any enforcement measures be de-prioritised by local agencies or altered by Government and are existing evaluations of their effectiveness sufficient to support such decisions?
Consider the range of responses to tackling antisocial behaviour deployed by local agencies, including the use of community wardens.
Work on this strand will involve a simple and high-level mapping exercise to determine what ASB services are being delivered across Scotland. This will, for example, plot in table format how many wardens each authority has, which authorities have witness and victim support services, which authorities offer mediation services etc. This will form part of the evidence gathering phase of the review. A second and more meaty consideration under this strand will be the future direction for community wardens and in particular whether we should recommend they be given further enforcement powers. Key questions under this review objective are:
Q.5. What core and periphery ASB services are each local authority providing?
Q.6. Should we recommend that wardens be given further enforcement powers?
Consider whether the current balance between prevention and enforcement is appropriate.
The aim of this objective is to review the evidence to see whether we need to alter the current balance between prevention and enforcement. This government has already indicated its desire to put additional focus on prevention and early intervention at the national level. A key consideration is whether local agencies need to reposition themselves on the spectrum or whether agencies are already focused towards prevention and early intervention and we merely need to identify and report this activity more accurately. Key questions for this objective are as follows:
Q.7. Should we recommend a change in the balance between prevention and enforcement?
Q.8. Should we recommend that resources be redirected to reflect any new balance between prevention and enforcement or should we recommend that efficiencies be identified to ensure additional resources are freed up to cover any new activities associated with any new balance?
Q.9. Is there already a focus locally on prevention and early intervention but such