“The breach rate for asbos has risen, from less than 40 per cent in 2003 to 56 per cent by the end of 2009, with 41 per cent breached more than once.”
The Guardian, 30 January 2011

“The asbo has got enormously high breach rates... The breach rates have just gone through the 70 per cent mark.”
Isabella Sankey, Liberty Director of Policy, BBC Radio 4 Today, 30 January 2011

With police forces in England and Wales today receiving new powers to tackle gangs through “civil injunctions”, comparisons have inevitably been drawn with the anti-social behaviour orders (asbos) that were introduced in 1999, right down to their being dubbed “gangbos” by certain sections of the press.

But those following the discussion in this morning's media might have left with a confused picture of exactly what legacy the asbo has left, with estimates for the breach rate ranging from 56 per cent in The Guardian to the 70 per cent claimed by Liberty's Director of Policy Isabella Sankey.

Both figures have some justification, although neither gives the full picture.

Liberty's estimate of 70 per cent is drawn from a Written Answer given by then Home Office Minister Alan Campbell in November 2009, which stated that of the 2,136 asbos issued in 2007, 1,502 had been breached; a rate of 70.3 per cent.

However to say that the breach rate has “just gone through the 70 per cent mark” is slightly problematic. The Home Office has since issued more up-to-date figures, and these show that the rate has dipped back below 70 per cent, being 62.5 per cent in 2008 and 67.8 per cent in 2009.

The figure of 56 per cent given by the Guardian draws from these most recent figures, but refers to the average proportion of asbos breached over the decade in which they have operated. Between 2000 and 2009 a total of 18,566 asbos were issued, with 10,380 breached, a rate of 55.9 per cent.

However a closer look at the figures show that this average is lowered significantly by the breach rates in the early years of the asbo's operation. Between 2000 and 2002, for example, when just 1,018 asbos were issued in total, the breach rate was just 32.1 per cent.

Whilst nominally more up-to-date therefore, the Guardian's figure arguably sheds no more light on the present breach rate than Liberty's figure from 2007, which is closer to the present rate of 67.8 per cent.