backKing & Spalding was part of the Working Party and research team that supported UK human rights charity JUSTICE on its report, ‘Lowering the Standard: A review of Behavioural Control Orders in England and Wales’, which was published on September 20. The comprehensive report reviewed the various Behavioural Control Orders in England and Wales, which are utilised by authorities to tackle anti-social behaviour, knife-crime, domestic abuse, stalking, sex-offending, and protest, amongst others. The report found that successive Governments have failed to provide robust evidence proving that Behavioural Control Orders are an effective way of dealing with these complex issues.
Even where certain orders have the potential to serve the needs of victims, we have seen that the police and local councils neglect to use them to their full advantage. At the same time, they afford authorities wide, discretionary power and provide insufficient guarantees of due process and human rights to those who are affected. The full report makes a series of recommendations on how to increase the effectiveness of Behavioural Control Orders while also improving guarantees of human rights and due process. It can be found here. Peter Hood and Ruth Byrne KC were members of the Working Party. Peter led a cross-office team of lawyers - Medhavi Singh (London), Jasmine Curtoni (London), Vanessa Alarcon Duvanel (Geneva), Sarah Primrose (Atlanta), Joel Ng (Singapore), Daisuke Shimodaira (Tokyo) and Kateryna Frolova (Dubai) - in providing pro bono support through research, comparative analysis and drafting.