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Protection from Harassment Act

Answer

The available information from the Home Office Court Proceedings database on the number of restraining orders made under section 5 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 up to 2004 is contained in table one.The available information from the Department for Constitutional Affairs County Court Statistics Module Database on the estimated number of injunctions granted under section 3 of the Act, 1998 to 2005, is contained in table two. (The number is estimated because there is no specific reference to section three of the Act within the dataset.) It is not possible to identify those orders or injunctions that were intended to prevent contact with a partner or spouse, as information about the purpose of such orders and injunctions is not centrally collected. Both restraining orders made under section 5 of the Act and civil injunctions granted under section three are civil orders.Both orders are preventative rather than punitive and are intended to give protection to victims. In determining whether a restraining order is necessary, the criminal court will apply a civil standard of proof. If a civil court is satisfied on a balance of probabilities that harassment has taken place or is anticipated, then it may grant an injunction.

Protection from Harassment Act 1997
	Injunctions granted
1998	374
1999	390
2000	283
2001	433
2002	482
2003	761
2004	354
2005 (to September 2005)	482

Defendants given a restraining order, principal andnon-principal, 1997–2004
	Crown court	Magistrates court	All courts
1997	0	1	1
1998	38	822	860
1999	146	1,290	1,436
2000	59	1,559	1,618
2001	3	1,602	1,605
2002	127	1,807	1,934
2003	520	1,947	2,467
2004	602	2,204	2,806
Source: RDS-NOMS

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

28061; 439 c1433-5W;439 c1437-9W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Access Housing Harassment Injunctions Married people

Legislation

Protection from Harassment Act 1997

Contains statistics

Yes