Written question asked by Nadine Dorries (Conservative) on Wednesday, 22 October 2014, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 24 October 2014. It was answered by Norman Baker (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 30 October 2014 on behalf of the Home Office.

Stalking

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many complaints of stalking were recorded by the police in England and Wales in (a) 2011-12, (b) 2012-13 and (c) 2013-14.

Answer: The Home Office collects data on the number of crimes recorded by the police but not how many complaints the police receive.

Prior to 1 April 2014, offences relating to stalking recorded by the police were included in the offence classification of harassment and cannot be
identified separately. From the 1 April 2014 these offences have been supplied to the Home Office as a separate classification of stalking. Therefore data are only available for the months April to June 2014, when the police recorded 695 offences. They are published in the quarterly Office for National Statistics publication of ‘Crime in England and Wales’.

The most recent data are available in Table A4 of the appendix tables in this link:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/period-ending-june-2014/index.html

Secondary information