Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many restraining orders issued by the courts were breached (a) once, (b) twice and (c) on more than three occasions in each of the last five years.

I am replying as the Ministry of Justice has overall responsibility for this legislation. The Government is absolutely clear that stalking and harassment, which cause misery for victims, are totally unacceptable. That is why in 2012 we added to the existing offences in the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (harassment (section 2) and putting people in fear of violence (section 4)) two new specific offences of stalking (section 2A) and stalking involving fear of violence or serious alarm or distress (section 4A).

The 1997 Act also gives the courts the option, upon conviction or acquittal for an offence under it, of making a restraining order for the purpose of protecting the victim of an offence, or any other person mentioned in the order, from conduct that amounts to harassment or that will cause fear of violence. Breach of such an order is a criminal offence carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison, or a fine, or both.

The number of offenders convicted on one, two, or three or more occasions, in each of the last five years for which data is available, of breaching a restraining order can be viewed in the table below. These figures have been drawn from an extract of the Police National Computer (PNC) data held by the Department. The PNC holds details of all convictions and cautions given for recordable offences. As with any large scale recording system the PNC is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing so data provided may be subject to revision.

The number of restraining orders issued and sentences given for breaches of restraining orders, from 2009 to 2013 (the latest available) in England and Wales, can be viewed in the table below. These figures are taken from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) court proceedings database.

Number of restraining orders issued and sentences given for breaches of restraining orders, England & Wales, 2009 to 2013⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾

Court proceedings data for 2014 are planned for publication in May 2015.

Figures taken from the PNC database will differ from figures taken from the MoJ court proceedings database. Hence, police recorded crime and court proceedings data are not directly comparable.

As the Violence Against Women and Girls Report (Home Office, 2015) notes: “Increases in reporting of domestic abuse incidents indicate that victims have more confidence in the criminal justice system. Prosecutions for domestic abuse have increased while out of court disposals for domestic abuse at the pre-charge stage have reached their lowest levels, and we have seen increases in the volume of prosecutions and conviction rate for all VAWG offences. These figures are showing that not only are victims more confident in coming forward – the criminal justice system is delivering improved outcomes for them.”