In 2011, 1,414 anti-social behaviour orders (ASBO) were issued across England and Wales costing the British taxpayer £6,787,200. While 1,414 ASBO’s were issued last year, 1,249 were breached in the same year. These include ASBOs issued in previous years.

The figures released today by the Home Office on court-issued ABSOs are compiled by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) at all courts by the Court Service between 1999 and 31 December 2011.

ASBOs were introduced by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 under Tony Blair’s Labour Government as a deterrent to combat local crime and disorder. From April 1999 to December 2011, 21,749 ASBOs have been issued, peaking in 2005 when 4,122 were issued.

Breaches

Of the 21,645 ASBOs issued between 2000 and 2011, 57.3 percent have been breached at least once, with 42.9 percent breached on multiple occasions. 

If an ASBO is breached, it is breached an average of 4.7 times and on average, nearly a third of ASBOs are breached within the first year.

Cost

A 2005 summary report by the Home Office estimates that the average cost of issuing an ASBO to be £4,800, revised up from the 2004 estimate of £2,500.

This ultimately means that the cost of issuing ASBOs in England and Wales has so far cost the British taxpayer in excess of £100 million. In 2010 The Telegraph reported that one ASBO alone had cost up to £1.3 million to enforce.

It was also announced in 2003 by the National Audit Office that responding to reports of anti-social behaviour in England and Wales costs government agencies around £3.4 billion a year. 

In July 2010, the Home Secretary Teresa May said, "For 13 years, politicians told us that the government had the answer; that the ASBO was the silver bullet that would cure all society’s ills. It wasn’t. Life is more complex than that."