Following concerns about the police response to stalking, the government has announced changes to stalking protection orders.
This Insight looks at the background to the government’s announcement, including the prevalence of stalking, what stalking protection orders are and how the government plans to strengthen the use of stalking protection orders.
What is stalking?
In broad terms, stalking occurs when someone repeatedly behaves in a way that makes a person feel scared, distressed or threatened. The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 provides examples of behaviours associated with stalking a person, including:
- following them
- contacting, or attempting to contact, them
- monitoring their use of the internet or email
- watching or spying on them
The Suzy Lamplugh Trust, a stalking charity, describes stalking as a “pattern of fixated and obsessive behaviour which is repeated, persistent, intrusive and causes fear of violence or engenders alarm and distress”.
The 1997 act contains two stalking offences:
- stalking, defined as harassment which involves behaviours associated with stalking, such as those in the list above (section 2A)
- stalking involving fear of violence or serious alarm or distress (section 4A)
The offences came into force on 25 November 2012. The maximum prison sentence for the more serious section 4A offence was doubled to 10 years from April 2017.
How common is stalking?
The ONS (Office for National Statistics) Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) reported that the police recorded 129,076 stalking offences in the year to March 2024. The CSEW 2024 found that 3.2% of people aged 16 and over said they had experienced stalking, which is equivalent to 1.5 million people, significantly higher than the number of stalking offences recorded by the police. The prevalence of stalking is shown in the chart below.
While the number of stalking offences recorded by the police has risen, the proportion of people reporting stalking has stayed the same, shown on the right of the chart below.
Women and younger people are more likely to be victims of stalking: 20.2% of women experience stalking compared with 8.7% of men, and 8.8% of those aged 16 to 19 experience stalking compared with 2.6% of those aged 45 to 54.
According to the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, 45% of people who contact their helpline are being stalked by a former partner while a further third of victims had a prior acquaintance with their stalker.
What are stalking protection orders?
Stalking protection orders (SPOs) are civil orders that can be used to impose restrictions and requirements on perpetrators.
SPOs enable courts, at the request of the police, to ban stalkers from contacting victims and visiting certain locations as well as requiring them to engage with professional help, including a mental health assessment. They were created by the Stalking Protection Act 2019.
Penalties for breaching an SPO include up to six months’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine in the magistrates’ court; or up to five years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine in the Crown Court.
The courts do not currently have the power to issue an SPO unless the police apply for one. Without such an application, an SPO cannot be issued.
Are the police using stalking protection orders effectively?
In November 2022, the Suzy Lamplugh Trust (on behalf of the National Stalking Consortium) submitted a ‘super-complaint’ against the police on the grounds that there were “systemic issues” with their response to stalking. The police super-complaints system allows designated organisations to raise systemic issues that are not otherwise dealt with in the regular complaints system.
The super-complaint described police use of SPOs as “insufficient” and that they did not apply for them “when requested by the victim”. It also said that breaches of SPOs are “not responded to in a timely or efficient manner”.
The final report of the official investigation into the super-complaint contained 29 recommendations for improving the police’s response to stalking, including two recommendations for new legislation:
- Change the criminal law on stalking so it’s easier for police to understand and apply, looking in particular at the definition of stalking and whether here should be a single stand-alone offence.
- Change the legal framework for SPOs to allow the courts to issue an SPO on the conviction or acquittal of a defendant, to align them more closely to protective orders available in domestic abuse cases, and to allow chief constables to apply for SPOs in respect of perpetrators outside their police force area.
The Labour government accepted the recommendation to enable the courts to issue an SPO on conviction or acquittal but said that “more consideration is needed” on the other areas of change recommended for SPOs and stalking more widely.
In January 2025, the BBC reported that 1,439 SPOs had been issued since 2020 by the 40 police forces that responded to the BBC’s freedom of information request. Clive Ruggles, whose daughter Alice was stalked and murdered by her ex-boyfriend, told the BBC he was “increasingly exasperated” that the police were not making better use of SPOs. The Assistant Chief Constable of Cleveland Police, Richard Barker, agreed that the police “should absolutely be doing more SPOs” but said the application process was complicated and could “often lead into pages and pages of paperwork”.
What are the Labour government’s plans for stalking protection orders?
In December 2024, the government announced that SPOs would be made more widely available, with courts given the power to impose SPOs directly at conviction or acquittal. The government says allowing the courts to make SPOs in such circumstances will “help stop […] offenders from contacting their victims from prison”. This measure is included in the Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently in committee stage in the Commons.
The government has also announced other measures to tackle stalking, including giving victims the right to know the identity of their online stalker and a review of stalking legislation to assess whether changes are needed to support police to better identify stalking and arrest offenders.
How have stakeholders reacted?
This is a pivotal moment for police forces to demonstrate their commitment to improving the criminal justice experience and outcomes for victims of stalking.
[…] it is not enough to just say we will do better, instead now we need to see a real commitment to preventing the numerous failures encountered by stalking victims.
Isabelle Younane, Head of External Affairs at Women’s Aid, said that changes to SPOs will only work if:
underlying issues are addressed and police forces and other agencies consistently understand and implement these orders, including meaningful consequences for those who breach them.
Further reading
House of Commons Library, Crime and Policing Bill 2024-25
About the author: Greg Oxley is a researcher at the House of Commons Library.
Photo by Jimmy Kovacic on Unsplash