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Stalking: Prosecutions

Answer

The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 created the offence of harassment and latterly, as amended by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, stalking. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 came into effect on 25 November 2012 and introduced two new offences of stalking, by way of Section 2A and Section 4A, into the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold any data which shows the number of defendants charged with and prosecuted for offences of stalking or the number of these who were previously convicted of similar offences.

However, management information is held showing the number of offences of stalking in which a prosecution commenced from each year from 2013. The table below shows the number of these offences to the latest available year, 2021.

Protection from Harassment Act 1997 { 2A(1) and (4) }	Protection from Harassment Act 1997 { 4A(1)(a)(b)(i) and (5) }	Protection from Harassment Act 1997 { 4A(1)(a)(b)(ii) and (5) }
2013	416	41	103
2014	700	128	258
2015	637	141	337
2016	519	83	336
2017	782	134	490
2018	1,208	290	622
2019	1,260	320	680
2020	1,281	407	743
2021	1,618	488	967
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System

The figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. It is often the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence against the same complainant. No data are held showing the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

37497

Session

2022-23

Transferred

Yes

Subjects

Prosecutions Stalking

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk