Home Office Delays Anti-social Behaviour Review Rules

If statutory instruments usually feel like a wall of legal jargon, you are not alone. This one is short, but it matters. According to legislation.gov.uk, the Home Office made these amending regulations on 21 October 2026, with Sarah Jones signing them as Minister of State. The instrument is S.I. 2026/1111, and its job is simple: it removes the planned start date for two parts of the Crime and Policing Act 2026. In plain English, section 6 and Schedule 3 were meant to come into force on 26 October 2026 in England and Wales. They now will not. The law has not disappeared, but its launch has been postponed.

To see why that matters, it helps to know how commencement rules work. When Parliament passes an Act, different sections often start on different days. Ministers then use commencement regulations to switch particular parts on. The earlier Crime and Policing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 3 and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026, listed as S.I. 2026/960, had already chosen 26 October 2026 for section 6 and Schedule 3. This new amending instrument deletes the two lines in regulation 4 that set that date. **What this means:** the government has moved the start button. It has not rewritten section 6 or Schedule 3 in this instrument; it has changed when they begin.

So what was section 6 supposed to do? The explanatory note on legislation.gov.uk says section 6 introduces a new process for a further review of anti-social behaviour case reviews carried out by relevant bodies under section 104 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Policing and Crime Act 2014. That is dense language, so let us slow it down. A case review is part of the formal system used when anti-social behaviour concerns have already been raised and agencies need to look again at how a case has been handled. Section 6 was designed to add another review stage for those existing case reviews. For anyone following this closely, that is the key point: this was about oversight and process, not a new definition of anti-social behaviour.

Schedule 3 is the companion piece. The same explanatory note says it contains supplementary provisions setting out more detail on how reviews under section 6 should be carried out. It also covers the procedures that must be put in place, including consultation requirements. That matters because laws often work in pairs: one part states the new power or process, and another explains the machinery around it. Without Schedule 3, there is much less practical guidance on how the review should run and what safeguards must sit around it. That is why both provisions were due to start together, and why both have now been delayed together.

The immediate effect is quite narrow, but still important. From 26 October 2026, people in England and Wales will not get this new further-review route, because the relevant parts of the Act will not yet be in force. Existing arrangements stay in place unless and until ministers set a fresh commencement date. **Why this matters:** delays in procedural law can sound abstract, yet procedure is often where accountability lives. If you are a resident dealing with persistent anti-social behaviour, the difference between 'available next week' and 'available later' can be very real, even if the legal amendment itself looks tiny.

The government has not used this short instrument to give a full explanation for the delay. The explanatory note says only that section 6 and Schedule 3 will be brought into force at a future date. That distinction matters. This is a pause, not a cancellation. The same note also says there is no separate full impact assessment for this amending instrument. Instead, officials point readers to the wider assessment already carried out for the broader Crime and Policing Act 2026 package. Ministers say this amendment is not expected to have a significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sector.

If you are teaching this, studying it or simply trying to read the law without feeling shut out, the lesson is a useful one. A statutory instrument can be only a few lines long and still make a meaningful change. Here, omitting regulation 4(f) and 4(i) from the earlier commencement regulations is enough to postpone a whole review process. The next thing to watch is not whether section 6 exists on paper; it does, inside the Crime and Policing Act 2026. The real question is when ministers will choose to bring it, and Schedule 3 beside it, into force. Until that happens, the promised new review pathway remains on hold.