Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) sentencing and (b) guidelines in relation to stalking offences tried in the magistrates’ court.

Sentencing decisions in individual cases are a matter for the independent judiciary, taking into account the circumstances of the offence and the offender, including any particular aggravating or mitigating factors.

Magistrates’ courts can sentence an offender to up to 12 months’ imprisonment for a single triable either-way offence and up to 65 weeks’ imprisonment for two or more triable either-way offences sentenced together, subject to statutory limitations. Where magistrates consider that their sentencing powers are insufficient to reflect the seriousness of the offence, they may commit an offender to the Crown Court for sentence.

The sentencing guidelines for stalking and harassment offences have been in effect since 2018. Sentencing guidelines are developed by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales, which also monitors and evaluates all definitive guidelines, as per its statutory duty to do so.