By ANDREW GRICE
Beggars will be handed criminal records - and fixed-penalty fines will be imposed on antisocial children as young as 10, under plans to be announced next week.
A White Paper, leaked to the Independent, includes measures to crack down on "nuisance neighbours, yobs, drunks, drug users and beggars" and tackle problems from "dysfunctional" families.
The document, marked "draft, restricted policy", will be followed by an Anti-Social Behaviour Bill, to be pushed through Parliament in its current session.
The proposals are supported by Tony Blair and David Blunkett, the Home Secretary. But they will alarm some Labour MPs and fuel criticism that the Government is adopting "illiberal" measures.
The 65-page report, "Winning Back Our Communities", takes a particularly hard line on beggars. It says the public feels intimidated by people begging and states: "There is no need for anyone to beg in this country."
It denies claims there is a "no home, no benefit, no job" cycle, saying the homeless are entitled to benefits.
"The reality is the majority of people who beg are doing so to sustain a drug habit and giving them money on the street does not serve to help them deal with their problems at all. Beggars are also very likely to be caught up in much more serious crime."
The White Paper says begging will be made a recordable offence, so convictions form part of a criminal record, and persistent offenders can be fingerprinted. After three convictions, courts will be able to impose a "community penalty" such as drug treatment or work in the community.
There is no mention of plans floated previously by Mr Blair to cut child benefit payments to the parents of truants or persistent offenders. They are believed to have been dropped after a cabinet rebellion.
Instead, there will be a big extension of the fixed penalty notices of £40 or £80 currently being piloted for people aged 18 and above, for offences such as being drunk and disorderly, throwing fireworks and causing harassment, alarm or distress.
"Fixed penalty notices offer speedy and effective action that frees police and court time. The offender receives an immediate punishment which, if paid, will not result in a criminal record," says the White Paper.
The on-the-spot fines will be extended to truancy, low level offences of criminal damage, cycling on the pavement and urinating in the street, which the document says is "unacceptable in a civilised society".
The fines will be extended to 16 and 17-year-olds on a trial basis. If offenders have no income, parents will have to pay the penalty. The White Paper adds: "We are also considering extending the fixed penalty scheme to 10-16-year-olds."
At present, the fines can be imposed by police and community support officers. Under the proposals, chief constables will be allowed to grant other "accredited persons" the power to issue them - but the report does not spell out who.
Designated local education authority and school staff and police will be allowed to issue fixed penalty notices to parents "who condone or ignore truancy".
Schools will be able to ask parents to sign contracts if their child plays truant or has been excluded for serious misbehaviour. Refusal to sign such a contract would result in a fixed penalty fine or prosecution (for truancy) or a court-imposed parenting order (when children have been excluded).
"Intensive fostering" will be an alternative to custody for children when parents can no longer cope. In some cases, that would provide respite care for parents and the children might go home at weekends.
Other offenders would need a complete break from their family to allow for "intensive therapeutic work" in new fostering homes, staffed by professionals to help with problems such as drug misuse and mental ill-health. The Government will consider taking powers to make "intensive fostering" compulsory.
The Government will experiment with new Community Justice courts that "take justice into the community". Specially-trained adjudicators will deal with all low-level disorder offences and local authority housing matters including eviction.
Police will be given powers to disperse groups of people who appear "threatening, intimidating and frightening to other people". Restorative justice, under which offenders clear up their own graffiti and vandalism, will be extended to all age groups and will be considered at all stages of the criminal justice process.
"Too often, the police and, perhaps, the local authority housing department, areexpected to provide all the response needed," says the White Paper. "Public services must give the message that sanctions against anti-social behaviour are serious and breach of them will have consequences."
- INDEPENDENT
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