Public Spaces Protection Orders: Enforcement
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 25 February 2025 to Question HL4920 on Public Spaces Protection Orders: Enforcement, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of outsourced companies encouraging staff to levy fines (a) for the profit of those companies and (b) in return for incentive payments.
Answered by Dame Diana Johnson
The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of tools and powers they can use to respond to anti-social behaviour (ASB), including the Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO).
It is for local authorities to determine how to operate the powers and to ensure use remains just and proportionate. Where local authorities contract enforcement to third parties, contractors are bound by the same legal obligations, and the same safeguards in legislation, as councils themselves. Local authorities are also obliged to follow the rules set out in the Public Contract Regulations 2015 in appointment of such companies.
Verbatim has judged this answer against the question that was actually asked — answered, partly answered, or evaded. Sign in to see the verdict →