Concern over anti social behaviour legislation

17/06/2004

The National Autistic Society Scotland, Capability Scotland and Leonard Cheshire raised their concerns with MSPs that the Antisocial Behaviour Etc. (Scotland) Bill could wrongly target young people with disabilities causing further stress, financial hardship and stigma for families living with a disability.

  Disability campaigners have welcomed the legislation in principle as people with disabilities are often victims of antisocial behaviour.  However, people with disabilities can also display challenging, obsessive or ritualistic behaviour which may appear to be antisocial.  Under the current draft bill this could leave people with conditions such as autism, ADHD, Huntington's disease and learning disabilities wrongly targeted by the law for behaviour caused by their disability.

Cases have already been publicised in England where Anti Social Behaviour Orders have been used against children with disabilities. Disability campaigners argue that this should not be allowed to happen in Scotland.  They want to see an amendment to the bill that will alter the definition of anti social behaviour to focus it on behaviour that is intended rather than unintended behaviour due to factors such as disability.

 Commenting on the stage 3 debate, Michelle Hegarty, Capability Scotland says:

"This is an important piece of legislation for disabled people to protect them against anti social behaviour.  But we are in danger of taking such a broad brush approach that we end up targeting the very people who could be protected by this legislation.  Disabled people and families with a disabled child already face discrimination and stigmatising behaviour and many families and carers simply don't have enough support services to help them cope.  This legislation needs to make a clear statement about how it will treat those with a disability: we need support for those whose behaviour is unintended and caused by their disability not parenting orders and fines."

You can read the press release here

You can find out more about the Antisocial Behaviour (Scotland) Act here

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