To ask the Minister of Justice for an update on the Anti Social Behaviour Review.

Mrs Long

My Department carried out a consultation in 2018, inviting public opinion on a number of legislative proposals aimed at addressing antisocial behaviour. A full summary of responses was published on the Department’s website in December 2019. Since then, my officials have established a multi-agency review group to consider the effectiveness of current antisocial behaviour legislation in managing antisocial behaviours, as well as any new legislation that may be required. In parallel, my officials have commenced a scoping exercise to identify, where possible, an evidence base that will indicate how successful some of the proposed legislative measures, as introduced in the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 and as set out in the consultation document, have been. Recognising that legislation alone will not resolve this issue, the review group’s work is also seeking to inform discussion on the barriers and solutions to managing non-legislative responses to antisocial behaviour, including greater use of preventative and early intervention initiatives to address behaviours and any structures to allow for partnership and collaborative working.

Mrs Long

It is very important to say that responses to the consultation were very mixed. There were no conclusive areas where everyone agreed that we should take forward additional legislation, which is why the cross-sectoral working group has been set up. As a result of that, there is some complex work going on to develop an evidence base. It is, therefore, unlikely that we will bring forward new legislation in this mandate to deal specifically with antisocial behaviour. However, the non-legislative approaches, which I have referred to, may be able to take that forward.

Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Beggs)

That is the end of our time for listed questions to the Minister, and we now move on to topical questions.