Evidence based policy making in action
Tuesday, July 24th, 2007The Public Accounts Committee impressively takes apart the government’s anti-social behaviour agenda. ASB interventions are now costing £3.4bn a year, but the government has made no effort to evaluate the effectiveness of really, any of it.
The department has no information about the effectiveness of its policies and even supplied the National Audit Office with incorrect data. Whoops.
The report concludes:
Comparable local areas use different approaches to dealing with antisocial behaviour and there has been no comparative evaluation of the success of these approaches. Nor has there has been a comprehensive evaluation of the use and success of the different measures and powers, making it difficult for the Home Office, the Respect Task Force and those dealing with anti-social behaviour to assess what works best.
It’s worth reviewing what little evidence there is, however. This is from a sample study by the National Audit Office:
|
Intervention |
Cost |
Success rate |
|
Warning letter |
£63 |
63% |
|
Acceptable Behaviour Contract |
£230 |
65% |
|
ASBO |
£3100 |
45% |
And the Respect Unit found that ASBOs can cost as much as £10,000.
