Independent Working Group on Antisocial Behaviour: review report

Actions

Victims:

• Ring-fenced funding for long term, independent support for victims.
• Explore the learning and impact from community trigger and community protection notices in England and Wales to improve responses to persistent antisocial behaviour to ensure a consistent approach across Scotland.
• Examine current legislation and tools available to Housing Providers to explore where, in serious cases of antisocial behaviour, those causing antisocial behaviour could be temporarily moved until a judicial process is complete, to give victims reassurance without requiring them to move home.

Protected Characteristics:

• Ensure that demographic analysis, cultural context and intersectionality are included in approaches to antisocial behaviour strategies including carrying out Equality Impact Assessments.
• Recognise that antisocial behaviour often manifests differently across communities, particularly for those facing racial, religious, or other forms of discrimination. Strengthen responses to ensure they effectively address these specific impacts and develop targeted interventions to combat hate crime and the marginalisation of minority groups, ensuring that all communities feel supported and valued.

Transport:

• Invest in robust and consistent data collection across transport providers to inform proportionate decision making and evaluate antisocial behaviour trends pre- and post-implementation of transport initiatives, for example, the Under-22 Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme.
• Encourage partnerships among Transport Scotland, bus operators, local authorities, and third-sector organisations to share best practices and align on strategies for preventing and addressing antisocial behaviour. Explore models like the deployment of Transport Safety Officers or bus wardens to deter antisocial behaviour, provide on-ground support, and enhance passenger reassurance. Evaluate successful trials in other UK regions (e.g. Stoke-on-Trent and West Midlands) for potential replication in Scotland.
• Align measures addressing antisocial behaviour with broader government objectives, such as the climate just transition and child poverty eradication, ensuring sustainable, safe and equitable transport access for all.
• Ensure that the development of any schemes such as passenger behaviour codes and escalation procedures (e.g. warnings, temporary suspensions) for repeat incidents of antisocial behaviour across all age groups by Transport Governing bodies are co-designed with a wide range of stakeholders - including passengers of all ages - to ensure that solutions are rights-based, fair, and uniformly applied, with clear criteria and oversight by centralised establishments.

Health:

• Consider alignment to public health approaches around upstream prevention including further investment in models such as Scottish Prevention Hub/Edinburgh Futures Institute regarding the use of shared data.
• Ensure health sector/practitioners are involved in local and national, multi-agency long term and situational approaches.
• Investment in accessible mental health and substance misuse services for children and adults which meet current and future demands.
• Explore whether there are other 'compulsory measures of care' approaches that can be adopted in relation to situational responses.

Housing and Environment:

• Review and enhance situational response tools available to local authority antisocial behaviour teams and social housing providers, recognising that robust incremental enforcement tools can stop escalation into more serious behaviours whilst initiating longer term supportive and preventative measures.
• Develop housing allocation policies that pre-emptively avoid potential conflicts by considering compatibility factors (e.g. known antisocial behaviour issues), ensuring that the needs of victims and affected communities are prioritised while remaining mindful of fairness and avoiding discrimination.
• Consider priority timescales within the current court backlog for criminal cases with linked Housing or Antisocial Behaviour team cases to be heard at court. Consider special sittings in civil courts for serious housing antisocial behaviour cases seeking legal actions to be progressed, with increased weight given to victim impact statements.
• Adopt a spend to save upstream prevention and investment approach for social housing providers to provide floor coverings of a quality standard which could alleviate further noise transmission complaints and offer savings in terms of negative follow up contacts.
• More systematic data collection around housing related antisocial behaviour, including key demographics relating to those causing antisocial behaviour and victims - expanding indicators already reported on to The Scottish Housing Regulator.
• Investment by social housing providers in preventative tenancy support programmes prior to new, first or ‘failed’ tenancy allocations to equip young tenants or tenants with a history of antisocial behaviour with life skills and resilience to sustain a tenancy without becoming entrenched in antisocial behaviour.

Retail:

• Advance a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing in the retail sector by implementing tests of change, rigorously analysing data to understand impact, and sharing best practice models, such as the local community enterprise and McDonald’s approaches noted later in this report, to promote preventative rather than reactive strategies.
• Leverage evidence to drive sector-wide improvements by sharing proven best practice and evidence of impactful approaches across the retail and other sectors to optimise resource allocation and maximise the effectiveness of budgets, with a focus on preventative efforts. Prioritise investment in prevention and youth engagement by redirecting resources toward preventative measures rather than reactionary in retail settings.
• Differentiate antisocial behaviour from criminal activity by developing clear frameworks to distinguish antisocial behaviour from more severe criminal activities, such as theft, organised crime, gang involvement, and child criminal exploitation, to ensure appropriate and effective interventions.

Justice:

• Investment is made in funding to ensure communities have access to specialist, free and independent Mediation and Restorative Justice Services locally.
• Take a contextual safeguarding approach to ensure safe spaces within city centres/areas of high crime.
• When behaviour escalates to criminal or violent behaviour, a proportionate and appropriate response is required.

Young people:

• Challenge persistent stereotypes that unfairly label young people as primary perpetrators of antisocial behaviour, acknowledging that individuals of all ages engage in antisocial behaviour. Focus on promoting prosocial behaviours, fostering empathy, resilience, and belonging as part of prevention strategies. Recognise antisocial actions as expressions of unmet needs and address these through supportive, developmental interventions.
• Align interventions with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) principles, prioritising education and support over punitive measures and ensuring statutory obligations to support young people’s development and dignity are upheld by government and local authorities.
• Prioritise development of a dedicated Youth Work Strategy for Scotland.
• Establish ‘ring-fenced’ funding for reliable, consistent, and well-resourced youth provision at a local and national level, preventing cuts that leave young people unsupported. Revive safe spaces and activities for young people to combat boredom, frustration, and isolation, which can contribute to antisocial behaviours.
• Learn from, and continue to invest in, the major success of recent policy related to youth crime (given the cross over between antisocial behaviour and other offending behaviours) - the whole system approach encompassing diversion and early and effective intervention.
• Explore local community/place-based decision making for allocation of Scottish Government Cashback For Communities funding as part of prevention of antisocial behaviour.
• Invest in providing tailored youth diversionary projects and the returning of safe spaces (as part of a contextual safeguarding approach), utilising the unique relationship and wider role housing providers have with communities to encourage multi-generational use of community spaces to increase community cohesion and mutual tolerances.