Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to improve police training and cross-border co-operation in cases of cyberstalking; and if she will make a statement.

The law is clear that what is illegal off-line is also illegal online, and robust legislation is in place to deal with cyber-stalking. To support the police in investigating stalking effectively, in 2012 the College of Policing developed a training package which has been completed over 68,000 times. And to assist information sharing between forces we have introduced an ‘online flag’ allowing police forces to record instances of crimes such as stalking taking place online.

We are working with the College of Policing to drive further improvements in police capability to investigate and prosecute online offences. The Home Office has allocated £4.6m of the Police Transformation Fund specifically to begin the critical work of setting up a comprehensive and joined up programme of digital transformation across policing.

In addition, the College of Policing will shortly be publishing refreshed guidance for the police on investigating stalking and harassment, and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Inspectorate are carrying out a joint inspection on the police and CPS response to these crimes.