Stalking Protection Bill

John Bercow Excerpts

3rd reading: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons
Friday 23rd November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Dr Sarah Wollaston (Totnes) (Con)]

I beg to move amendment 1, page 1, line 16, after “police” insert

“for a police area in England and Wales”.

This amendment and Amendments 2 and 6 would allow the chief constable of the Ministry of Defence Police and the Chief Constable of the British Transport Police Force to apply for stalking protection orders and interim stalking protection orders, and to take part in related procedures.

[Mr Speaker]

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:

Amendment 2, in clause 4, page 3, line 24, leave out from “police” to the end of line 27 and insert

“who applied for the stalking protection order and (if different) the chief officer of police for the area in which the defendant resides, if that area is in England or Wales.”

See the explanatory statement for Amendment 1.

Amendment 3, in clause 9, page 6, line 2, leave out “within” and insert “before the end of”.

This amendment would ensure a person can give notice that they are going to use a new name before doing so.

Amendment 4, page 6, line 8, leave out “within” and insert “before the end of”.

This amendment would ensure a person can give notice that they are going to change their home address before doing so.

Amendment 5, in clause 10, page 6, line 30, leave out

“whose home address is not”

and insert

“who does not have a home address”.

This amendment would cater for the possibility that a person might not have a home address.

Amendment 6, in clause 14, page 8, line 9, at end insert—

““chief officer of police” means—

(a) the chief constable of a police force maintained under section 2 of the Police Act 1996 (police forces in England and Wales outside London);

(b) the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis;

(c) the Commissioner of Police for the City of London;

(d) the chief constable of the British Transport Police;

(e) the chief constable of the Ministry of Defence Police;”

See the explanatory statement for Amendment 1.

Amendment 7, in clause 15, page 9, line 4, leave out from “force” to the end of line 5 and insert

“two months after the day on which this Act is passed.”

[Dr Wollaston]

This week we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first woman taking her seat in this House. I am immensely proud, as a Devon MP, that that woman was Lady Nancy Astor, and I think all of us in this House owe her an enormous debt of gratitude for the work she did, particularly in fighting on behalf of women and girls. I am proud that this Government have continued that work. Indeed, Members from across this whole House have done so much to advance this cause.

Of course, stalking does not just affect women—it affects men as well, and it is a vile crime of an insidious nature. I am very grateful to all those, both within this House and beyond, who have contributed to the passage of this Bill, including with advice, which has caused me to table some important amendments. They are minor in nature, but I think they will greatly improve the Bill.

Amendments 1, 2 and 6 would enable the chief constables of the Ministry of Defence police and the British Transport police to apply for stalking protection orders and interim orders, and to initiate related proceedings in connection with the variation and renewal of an order. That is because stalking occurs across a range of contexts and situations, with devastating consequences, and it is essential that a stalking protection order is available to police in a variety of situations. There may be circumstances in which the British Transport police or MOD police are best placed to seek an order, for example if the stalking conduct has taken place on the railway network or a perpetrator lives or works in MOD premises.

Amendments 3 and 4 would modify the notification requirements on a person subject to a stalking—

[Dr Wollaston]

I thank my hon. Friend for his point, which we could consider in the House of Lords as the Bill continues its passage.

Amendments 3 and 4 would modify the notification requirements on a person subject to a stalking protection order. Under the notification requirements, as drafted, a perpetrator must notify the police within three days of a change taking place. These amendments simply enable the perpetrator to give such notice in advance of a change taking place, and I hope that colleagues from across the House will recognise that that is a small, technical, but important change.

Finally, amendment 5 also relates to notification requirements. It caters for circumstances where the subject of a stalking protection order has no home address. In such a case, the amendment provides that the perpetrator can instead notify of a place where they can regularly be found. That simply mirrors notification requirements related to registered sex offenders. My hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Sir Christopher Chope) also has an amendment in this group, but I do not see him in the Chamber today, so I think we will assume that he does not wish to press that amendment. For now, I commend the amendments standing in my name to the House.

[Mr Speaker]

Has the hon. Lady completed her speech?

[Dr Wollaston]

indicated assent.

[Mr Speaker]

We are immensely grateful to her; she has been the epitome of succinctness, which serves as a useful model for other colleagues.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Mr Speaker]

Ah, a veritable slew of colleagues wishing to take part. I call Mr Alex Chalk.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

What a pleasure it is to say a few words in this debate.

Before I move on to the specifics, it is important to look at some of the context, because of course it was not until fairly recently that stalking was made a crime. Before 2012, the concept of stalking was perhaps not taken terribly seriously at all—it was almost considered something of a joke—but over the past decade there has been a recognition that, as my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes (Dr Wollaston) said, stalking is an insidious and wicked crime. I pay tribute to her work to ensure that society’s response truly fits the scale of the threat.