About the Community Trigger

The ASB Case Review, often referred to as the ‘Community Trigger’ gives victims who have persistently reported problems of antisocial behaviour the right to request a review of their case, where they believe their report has not been properly addressed.

If the case meeting the locally determined threshold then the relevant bodies have a statutory duty to undertake that review.

Relevant bodies

The relevant bodies include the:

• Relevant London borough council for the area
• Police force covering the area
• Relevant clinical commissioning group in England
• Local providers of social housing who are co-opted into the local arrangement

The Community Safety Service have recently reviewed the Community Trigger process and the methodology used to determine the local threshold for a full hearing. The review was carried out by the South London Legal Partnership to improve the current procedure to ensure it is complaint with the provisions of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

ASB Case Review/Community Trigger Threshold

The ASB Case Review/Community Trigger threshold is automatically met where-

1. An application for an ASB case review is made, and
2. At least three qualifying complaints have been made about the anti-social behaviour to which the application relates.

For the purposes of the ASB Case Review procedures, the definition of a qualifying complaint under Section 104 of the Act is:

• The complaint is made within one month beginning with the date on which the behaviour is alleged to have occurred; and
• The application for the ASB Case Review is made within six months of beginning with the date on which the complaint was made.

When considering any application for a ASB Case Review, ASB means behaviour causing harassment, alarm or distress to any member or members of the public. This is a higher threshold since it excludes ASB causing nuisance.

Where the automatic threshold above is not met, the application may be considered under the discretionary local threshold. 

Local threshold

The local threshold is met when an application for a ASB Case Review is made in writing within one month of the last incident of ASB reported to any of the relevant bodies and, in the opinion of the Community Safety Manager, it is necessary and expedient to carry out a Review due to:-

• The persistence of the ASB about which the original complaint was made
• The harm caused, or the potential for harm to be caused, by that behaviour
• The adequacy of the response to that behaviour
• Whether the case is being managed through one or more risk management processes

The decision whether to conduct an ASB Case Review however remains at the discretion of the Community Safety Manager.

Applications for ASB Case Reviews made anonymously, or which are considered by the Community Safety Manager to be frivolous and/or vexatious, will not be considered.

The Trigger cannot be used to report general acts of crime or hate crime and does not replace the formal complaints procedures of individual organisations.