BID TO STEM DRUG-LINKED CRIME FAILS THE ACID TEST

Jack Straw's high-profile policies designed to crack down on drug-related
crime and anti-social behaviour have stalled, new official figures reveal.

More than half the Government's drug treatment and testing orders, its
flagship policy designed to wean criminals off drugs, have either been
revoked or breached, according to figures emerging from three pilot areas.
Only six anti-social behaviour orders have been issued and not one child
curfew has been imposed.

The reluctance of police and local councils to use the new flagship powers
included in the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act could prove a severe setback for
Straw.

Crime experts are specially worried by the apparent failure of the drug
treatment and testing orders. Latest figures show two-thirds of the
treatment orders imposed by magistrates' courts or Crown courts have been
breached and a third have been revoked.

Straw sees breaking the link between crime and drugs as the single most
immediate priority facing the Home Office. Between 120,000 and 200,000
addicts of Class A drugs cause roughly pounds 1.5bn of criminal damage,
according to Home Office research.

Ministers do not yet have detailed reasons why so many treatment orders are
bring breached or revoked. The orders offer drug treatment as an alternative
to custody or traditional community sentences, if it is thought the crime is
linked to a need to feed a drug habit.

In Gloucestershire, 41 of the 72 court orders made have been breached, of
which 27 have been revoked. In Liverpool, half the orders have been
breached. In the third pilot area - Croydon - figures for November showed 14
of the 35 orders had been breached and nine revoked.

The Cabinet Office, which coordinated the Government's anti-drugs strategy,
admits the figures are puzzling, but claimed the figures for an experimental
policy were not disappointing.

Almost all the orders are imposed on Class A drug users found guilty of
specific crimes, such as burglary.

The Shadow Home Office spokesman, David Lidington, is demanding to know if
offenders in breach of orders are being resentenced for the original offence
or whether they are being given prison sentences. The Government last week
announced a planned doubling of the number of criminals to be referred to
drug treatment courses. Research shows that these courses can massively cut
dependence on drugs.

A second flagship Straw policy - anti-social behaviour orders - also appears
to have stalled. Since the scheme went nationwide in April, only six
anti-social behaviour orders have been issued, suggesting that the police or
local councils found them unnecessary. The orders, issued by magistrates'
courts, last two years and are designed to curb nuisance neighbours and
cases of persistent intimidation.

The Home Office has already recognised it made a mistake by setting a
maximum age of 10 for the imposition of child curfews, the third of its
flagship policies.

Not a single curfew has been imposed. The maximum age was set at 10 - the
age of criminal responsibility in England. It is now likely to be raised to
16, in line with Scotland.

Ministers cite greater success with reparation orders, of which 829 have
been imposed since 18-month-long pilots started in 13 areas in September
1988. These orders require the criminal to pay a reparation either to the
victim or the community. Half of them have been in Hampshire.

Separately, 122 parenting orders have been imposed since September. These
require the parents of convicted children to discipline them or attend
regular courses on parenting. They are also intended to be imposed on
parents whose children play truant.

Police are using new powers to designate areas where they can pick up
truanting children off the streets and either take them home or to school.
One such order has been imposed in Rotherham Only one Child Safety Order has
been imposed, in Sunderland. The orders are designed to prevent children
under 10 developing patterns of criminal behaviour.