Respect Orders came into force across England and Wales on 26 October 2026, creating a new court-based route for tackling persistent anti-social behaviour by adults. In the government announcement, the Home Office, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Ministry of Justice said the orders are intended to give police, councils and partner agencies stronger enforcement powers than the adult civil injunction regime they replace. (gov.uk) The change sits in Part 1 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, which inserts a new Respect Orders regime into the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. The legislation applies to respondents aged 18 or over and allows a county court or the High Court to impose restrictions or requirements where anti-social behaviour has been proved on the balance of probabilities and the court considers an order just and convenient. (legislation.gov.uk)
For local areas, the immediate effect is that courts can now bar an adult from specified places or conduct, including town centres and public drinking hotspots, while also requiring action aimed at changing behaviour. The government’s examples include bans linked to high streets and parks, alongside requirements such as drug or alcohol treatment or anger management. (gov.uk) That structure matters because the order is not limited to prohibitions. Under the Act, a Respect Order may both stop a person from doing defined acts and require participation in named activities, provided the court also considers work, education and any other court orders when setting the terms. (legislation.gov.uk)
Applications are not confined to police and councils. The Act defines relevant authorities to include local authorities, housing providers, chief officers of police including the British Transport Police, Transport for London, Transport for Greater Manchester and certain public bodies exercising security management or environmental functions. (legislation.gov.uk) Before applying, an authority must carry out a risk assessment and consider the respondent’s vulnerabilities, the risk of further harassment, alarm or distress, and alternative ways of preventing the behaviour. The legislation also allows without-notice applications and interim Respect Orders, meaning agencies can seek temporary controls before a final hearing where the court considers that step justified. (legislation.gov.uk)
Enforcement is the main departure from the previous adult injunction model. Breach of a Respect Order is a criminal offence, and the Act allows arrest and prosecution where a person ignores a prohibition or, after warning in the case of an activity requirement, fails to comply with a positive requirement. On conviction, the government says courts may use community punishments or fines, while the Act allows up to two years’ imprisonment on indictment. (legislation.gov.uk) The government has also said orders will be uploaded to the Police National Computer, allowing officers to check whether a person is already subject to conditions when further anti-social behaviour is reported. In practice, that should make street-level enforcement quicker, though it will also depend on accurate applications, timely data entry and frontline awareness of the new regime. (gov.uk)
Respect Orders also redraw the boundary between adult and youth responses. Ministers said the new order is confined to adults so that children are not unnecessarily brought into a criminal breach regime, while the Crime and Policing Act 2026 keeps the injunction power for those aged 10 to 17 through the youth injunction framework. (gov.uk) This places the policy between the older ASBO approach and the post-2014 civil injunction system. As the Home Office has framed it, the new order keeps the civil test for obtaining the order but adds criminal consequences for breach and retains scope for positive requirements designed to address the causes of repeated nuisance, aggression or disorder. (gov.uk)
There is also a stronger housing and victim-protection element than the headline announcement suggests. According to the explanatory notes to the Act, where the application comes from a housing provider, local authority or the police, the court may exclude a respondent from their home if violence has occurred, violence has been threatened, or there is a significant risk of harm to others. (legislation.gov.uk) For councils, social landlords and transport bodies, that means the policy is not simply about high-street nuisance. It creates a route for place-based controls tied to tenancy management, estate safety and transport settings. The National Police Chiefs’ Council said operational guidance had been prepared with the Home Office and College of Policing, while Resolve said results would depend on effective joint working between police, housing providers and local authorities. (gov.uk)
Respect Orders arrive as one element of a broader anti-social behaviour package. In the same announcement, ministers pointed to faster seizure of nuisance vehicles, an extension of dispersal powers from 48 to 72 hours, higher penalties for breaching community protection measures, and the deployment of 3,800 additional neighbourhood police and support officers, with each force now expected to have a named anti-social behaviour lead and a 72-hour response standard for neighbourhood queries. (gov.uk) For residents, the practical test will be whether agencies use the new power consistently and explain outcomes more clearly than under earlier measures. For practitioners, the key issue is whether a regime built on civil applications, criminal breach and supervised positive requirements can be used quickly enough to give visible relief in repeat cases. This is an analytical assessment based on the statutory design and the implementation statements issued by government and partner bodies. (legislation.gov.uk)