Justice Committee adjusts proposed anti-stalking legislation

Goldsmith added that the changes seek to address the problem of stalkers avoiding actual consequences for their behaviour for too long, to ensure victims lie at the heart of the justice system, and to prioritise them in the government’s efforts to restore law and order. 

Specific changes

According to the government’s news release, with the changes added by the Justice Committee, the proposed anti-stalking law will: 

• Tackle doxing, defined as the publication of private statements or materials regarding another person or purporting to originate from that person 
• Add provisions aiming to enable the disposal of intimate visual recordings possessed by someone convicted of the new stalking and harassment offence 
• Include the new stalking offence within the firearms prohibition orders regime, which would permit the issuance of those orders for those convicted of the new offence 
• Clarify the new aggravating factor concerning stalking by linking the behaviours associated with stalking and harassment to the offence with which a person is charged 
• Clarify that restraining orders under the Harassment Act 1997 and orders under the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015 can issue for an individual discharged without a conviction in connection with the new offence 

Last November, Goldsmith announced that the new stalking offence would carry a maximum penalty of five years’ incarceration. In December, Goldsmith shared that the legislation making stalking illegal and setting the maximum penalty had been introduced and had passed its first reading before Parliament. 

The latest announcement “builds on our work already underway to restore real consequences for crime, with our sentencing reforms coming into effect at the end of this month,” Goldsmith said in the news release. 

Goldsmith expressed gratitude to everyone who sent their submissions during the select committee process to help the government fight insidious behaviour like stalking.