A LAW preventing The Northern Echo from identifying a teenager locked up for breaching one of the country's toughest anti-social behaviour orders (Asbo) will be scrapped within weeks.

The House of Lords will debate the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill on March 14 -clearing the way for it to receive Royal Assent before a General Election.

The legislation will remove the automatic anonymity for offenders who appear in youth court for Asbo breaches.

In January, that anonymity allowed Darlington Youth Court to protect the identity of a 14-year-old who was locked up for breaching an unprecedented four-year Asbo.

The decision was condemned by MPs and councillors, including Darlington MP Alan Milburn.

Meanwhile, figures released by the Home Office yesterday reveal the number of people breaching Asbos has increased to more than four out of ten -from 36 per cent in 2003 to 42 per cent last year.

Regionally, the number of Asbos issued since their introduction in 1999 has risen almost year-on-year.

Northumbria has handed out 73 over the past five years, followed by 53 in County Durham, 40 in Cleveland and 34 in North Yorkshire.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke has encouraged councils to use publicity, including photographs and full details of the offenders involved, to help enforce the orders.

But the guidelines failed to address the problem of allowing youths to be named and shamed when given an order in the magistrates' courts, but not when they appear in youth court charged with breaching an Asbo -a criminal, rather than a civil, offence -making anonymity for a juvenile automatic.

In January, The Northern Echo lost an attempt to name the 14-year-old after he breached an Asbo, aimed at preventing him from harassing residents of the Skerne Park estate, in Darlington.

Magistrates said they were not inclined to re-open the case for consideration.

Yesterday, Mr Clarke said: "Many offenders think they are untouchable and above the law. If they thought there would be a news blackout on their actions, they must now think again."

Civil rights group Liberty said the name-and-shame tactics could lead to vigilante attacks, while Harry Fletcher, of probation union Napo, said: "There is absolutely no evidence that humiliating people through naming and shaming and adverse publicity has any impact on crime, or has any deterrence effect."