Stalking Protection Bill: Briefing for Lords Stages

The Stalking Protection Bill  is a private member’s bill sponsored by Sarah Wollaston (Conservative MP for Totnes) which seeks to protect members of the public from risks associated with stalking. It would do this by creating a new civil Stalking Protection Order (SPO) which—on application by the police to a magistrates’ court—would impose prohibitions and requirements on the perpetrator.  Any breach of the terms of the SPO would result in a criminal offence. The territorial extent of the bill extends to England and Wales only. The SPO has been designed to apply in situations where existing interventions are not always applicable, such as when: the stalking occurs outside of a domestic abuse context, or where the perpetrator is not a current or former intimate partner of the victim (so called ‘stranger stalking’); or the criminal threshold has not, or has not yet, been met (such as while a criminal case is being built), or the victim does not support a prosecution. The bill was introduced into the House of Commons on the 19 July 2017, had its second reading on 19 January 2018 and completed its stages in the House of Commons on 23 November 2018. It was introduced into the House of Lords on 26 November 2018 by Baroness Bertin (Conservative) and is due to have its second reading on 18 January 2019.