Asked by: Nadine Dorries (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many people have been charged under the provisions of section 4a of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 since 25 November 2012.
Answered by Robert Buckland
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd on 23rd October 2014 (questions, 211141, 211143 and 211144). The previous answer included tables detailing the number of offences charged under Sections 4A(1)(a)(b)(i), Sections 4A(1)(a)(b)(ii) and 2A(1) of the 1997 Act broken down by each police force in England and Wales.
Asked by: Nadine Dorries (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many people have been charged under the provisions of section 2a of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 since 25 November 2012.
Answered by Robert Buckland
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd on 23rd October 2014 (questions, 211141, 211143 and 211144). The previous answer included tables detailing the number of offences charged under Sections 4A(1)(a)(b)(i), Sections 4A(1)(a)(b)(ii) and 2A(1) of the 1997 Act broken down by each police force in England and Wales.
Asked by: Nadine Dorries (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many employees of the Crown Prosecution Service have been trained on the law on stalking to date; and what further such training is planned.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has developed two online e-Learning courses on all types of stalking. The “Cyber Crime: Cyber Stalking” course includes cyber stalking, non-cyber stalking and harassment. The “Stalking and Harassment” course (which was released in April 2014) deals specifically with stalking and harassment offences.
The CPS maintains a central record of the number of employees who have been trained on the law on stalking by way of the e-Learning courses. 1581 of its employees in post on 23 October 2014 have completed all elements of either of the e-Learning courses in the period between 1 November 2012 (the month when the Cyber Stalking e-Learning module was revised to include the new stalking offences) and 23 October 2014.
In October 2014 the CPS issued follow-up, face-to-face training material on the Stalking and Harassment offences. It can be used flexibly at a local CPS level; accordingly, its delivery is not recorded on a central database.
Although there are no current plans for new training products to be launched, the CPS will continue to train its staff in this critical area of work.