Tag: joint report

Tackling antisocial behaviour

New drive to keep communities safer

Preventing and addressing antisocial behaviour will be the focus of a new independently chaired working group being set up by the Scottish Government.

Members will look at the current approach and make recommendations on what long-term changes can be made to reduce such behaviour and support victims. It is expected that the group will provide regular updates and present their conclusions to Ministers by the end of 2024.

The new group was announced following the publication of a joint report on antisocial behaviour by the Scottish Government and the Scottish Community Safety Network.

Community Safety Minister Siobhian Brown, who is bringing together the working group, said: “We want everyone to be, and feel, safe in their community and we are committed to tackling all forms of antisocial behaviour.

“Reported antisocial behaviour has broadly been in decline over the last decade, but the recent disorder on Bonfire Night, in particular, has shown that where issues arise, these can have a very serious impact for many people.

“The report published today recommends that we need to consider how we best develop our long-term approach to preventing and addressing this type of behaviour. That is why I will be convening an independently chaired working group. I

“t is nearly 20 years since the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 was introduced and it is right that we examine whether this remains fit for purpose and that we assess our wider approach.

“I am grateful to those who took part in the engagement work with the Scottish Government and the Scottish Community Safety Network and shared their views and experience of antisocial behaviour. This report will inform the work of the new group.”

Director of the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice Fiona Dyer, who will be one of two chairs of the working group, said: “I am really looking forward to working with colleagues to support the prevention of antisocial behaviour across Scotland.

“Research demonstrates the vital importance and value of better engaging, enabling, and supporting individuals and their communities to reduce incidents of antisocial behaviour.  

“Through encouraging actively social behaviour within local communities, we can collectively address current issues and develop an inclusive and effective strategy that Scotland will be proud of.”

Joint co-chair Lorraine Gillies, Chief Officer at the Scottish Community Safety Network, said: “Ultimately, we believe victims will experience less antisocial behaviour with a changed approach, making our communities safer places.

“We believe in taking evidence-based approaches to what works to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour, focused on tackling root causes and working together with communities to find solutions.

“I welcome the publication of our co-authored report – written in partnership with the Scottish Government – and the announcement of an independent working group, set up to review antisocial behaviour in-depth. I look forward to pursuing this work and, in doing so, improving people’s lives.”

Reviewing Scotland’s Approach to Antisocial Behaviour

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UK Coronavirus response: “some big achievements with some big mistakes”

MPs publish Coronavirus: Lessons Learned To Date report

Covid vaccine programme “one of most effective initiatives in UK history” but delay to first lockdown a “serious error” that should have been challenged

The House of Commons and Science and Technology Committee and Health and Social Care Committee have published their Report, Coronavirus: lessons learned to date, examining the initial UK response to the covid pandemic.

The 150-page Report contains 38 recommendations to the Government and public bodies, and draws on evidence from over 50 witnesses—including Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP, Professor Chris Whitty, Sir Patrick Vallance, Sir Simon Stevens, Dame Kate Bingham, Baroness Harding of Winscombe and Dominic Cummings—as well as over 400 written submissions.

The Report was agreed unanimously by members of both Select Committees, which consist of 22 MPs from three political parties—Conservative, Labour and SNP.

The joint inquiry, which began in October 2020, examined six key areas of the response to covid-19: the country’s preparedness for a pandemic; the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as border controls, social distancing and lockdowns to control the pandemic; the use of test, trace and isolate strategies; the impact of the pandemic on social care; the impact of the pandemic on specific communities; and the procurement and roll-out of covid-19 vaccines.

The inquiry concluded that some initiatives were examples of global best practice but others represented mistakes. Both must be reflected on to ensure that lessons are applied to better inform future responses to emergencies.

In particular:

  • The forward-planning, agility and decisive organisation of the vaccine development and deployment effort will save millions of lives globally and should be a guide to future Government practice;
  • The delays in establishing an adequate test, trace and isolate system hampered efforts to understand and contain the outbreak and it failed in its stated purpose to avoid lockdowns;
  • The initial decision to delay a comprehensive lockdown—despite practice elsewhere in the world—reflected a fatalism about the spread of covid that should have been robustly challenged at the time;
  • Social care was not given sufficient priority in the early stages of the pandemic;
  • The experience of the covid pandemic underlines the need for an urgent and long term strategy to tackle health inequalities; and
  • The UK’s preparedness for a pandemic had been widely acclaimed in advance, but performed less well than many other countries in practice.

The 38 recommendations made, if implemented by the Government and by public bodies such as the NHS, would ensure that during the remaining period of the pandemic and in any new emergency, the UK could perform better by having distilled lessons—positive and negative—from the UK’s initial response to covid.

In a joint statement on the publication of the Coronavirus: lessons learned to date Report, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, and Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, Chair of the Science and Technology Committee, said:  “The UK response has combined some big achievements with some big mistakes. It is vital to learn from both to ensure that we perform as best as we possibly can during the remainder of the pandemic and in the future. 

“Our vaccine programme was boldly planned and effectively executed. Our test and trace programme took too long to become effective. The Government took seriously scientific advice but there should have been more challenge from all to the early UK consensus that delayed a more comprehensive lockdown when countries like South Korea showed a different approach was possible.

“In responding to an emergency, when much is unknown, it is impossible to get everything right. We record our gratitude to all those—NHS and care workers, scientists, officials in national and local government, workers in our public services and in private businesses and millions of volunteers—who responded to the challenge with dedication, compassion and hard work to help the whole nation at one of our darkest times.” 

The Report includes an Executive Summary with conclusions, recommendations and lessons learned at the end of each Chapter. 

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