More than 50pc of Asbos are breached

More than half of the anti-social behaviour orders issued by courts in the West Midlands are being breached, new Home Office figures reveal today.

And they show fewer police forces are using them to tackle troublemakers. A total of 119 orders were slapped on yobs in the region in 2009, down from 197 the previous year. Some 76 orders were breached at least once during the same period, with 354 breaches in total.

Figures for Staffordshire showed 28 orders were handed out, down two on the previous year.

Some 14 were breached for the first time, with 77 breaches in total.

In West Mercia, which covers Shropshire, the courts issued 46 orders — 19 fewer than in 2008 — and recorded 155 breaches.

Some 23 orders were breached at least once.

Across England and Wales 1,671 orders were issued during the 12 months — down 2,027. A total of 6,458 breaches were recorded, 1,133 at least once.

A Government review into Asbos is set to be completed within months.

It follows an announcement by Home Secretary Theresa May last summer that the orders were to be scrapped because of a drop in use and a record number of breaches.

She accused the previous government of introducing a "ludicrous list" of sanctions to tackle anti-social behaviour. These included the Iso (individual support order), the Asbi (anti-social behaviour injunction) and the Crasbo (criminal anti-social behaviour order).

Mrs May said it was "time to move beyond the Asbo" with simpler sanctions that were "rehabilitating and restorative rather than criminalising and coercive".

A Home Office spokeswoman said the powers for dealing with anti-social behaviour were not working. "These statistics on Asbos, for example, show that 56 per cent of those issued have been breached, many more than once," she said.