Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

As I said at the outset—the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, also made the point—ISOs have not been used as extensively as we would like because we see them as a positive measure. The experience is that practitioners see value in them and recognise that they make a contribution to preventing the anti-social behaviour that the noble Baroness and other noble Lords, particularly those on the Liberal Democrat Benches, see as very important. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, for raising the important work that the noble Baroness, Lady Linklater, has done in this field. We see ISOs playing an important part in tackling the behaviour that led to the initial ASBO. We want to see individual support orders used more widely and we are working with the court service and the Youth Justice Board to achieve that outcome. For those reasons, this clause forms an important part of our strategy. I hope that noble Lords across the Committee will welcome the Government’s continued determination to tackle anti-social behaviour and our efforts to ensure that we help young people tackle the underlying causes of that behaviour because that offers us a more imaginative range of solutions for the future. We understand the noble Lord’s concern. We want to see this used in a targeted way. We also want to see more extensive use of the order. I am advised that research has been commissioned into the effectiveness of ISOs and I shall be happy to report the outcome of that research to the noble Baroness in due course. She raised the good point that we should proceed on the basis of informed legislation. The view of practitioners is that ISOs have value. Clause 175 agreed to.