The Parental Responsibility Act, tabled in the House of Assembly last week, is a welcome piece of legislation which, in principle, deserves support when it comes up for debate.

The Act in general is aimed at holding parents responsible for their children while they are minors. As promised, not all of these are punitive. In some cases, parents will be required to get counselling and parental training, and in others, they will be held civilly liable for wilful damage such as vandalism. Failure to take part in counselling could then lead to criminal prosecutions. That seems fair enough.

More controversially, the Bill introduces anti-social behaviour orders for children, and also gives the Government the right to place children under the supervision of social workers in homes where there is a possibility of crimes being committed. "Asbos" have had a mixed record in the UK where they were first introduced, and this newspaper has concerns that making decisions on the basis of the possibility that a crime will be committed can be risky. More broadly, the success of this Act will depend most heavily on the effectiveness of the parental counselling, the effectiveness of the administration of Asbos, and the effectiveness of social workers to supervise the homes of at risk children.

That's a lot of effectiveness required. Too often, a law is passed and victory is prematurely declared. When the law is not enforced, or is enforced poorly, then the law might as well not have been passed at all. It would also be good to see some incentives for parental training put in place. Qualifying parents now get free day care; perhaps a condition of receiving it should be to take a parenting course. That's not to say that only children of low income parents are going to get into trouble, but it's a useful lever to get parents the support they need and to prevent trouble before it starts.