PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Stalking (10 March 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many incidents of stalking have been reported to the police since the implementation of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012; and how many of those incidents led to an (a) arrest, (b) prosecution and (c) conviction.

Asked by:
Seema Malhotra (Labour)

The Home Office does not hold data on the number of incidents of stalking reported to the police or on the number of people arrested for stalking. The Home Office holds data on the number of offences of stalking recorded by the police since April 2014 when stalking became a separately recorded classification (previously, stalking offences were included within harassment). The police recorded 1,682 stalking offences in the six month period April to September 2014. 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 in this link:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/crime-stats/crime-statistics/year-ending-september-2014/index.html

The Ministry of Justice holds information on the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and those found guilty at all courts for stalking.

Answered by:
Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat)
18 March 2015