Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many employees of the Crown Prosecution Service have been trained on the law on stalking to date; and what further such training is planned.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has developed two online e-Learning courses on all types of stalking. The “Cyber Crime: Cyber Stalking” course includes cyber stalking, non-cyber stalking and harassment. The “Stalking and Harassment” course (which was released in April 2014) deals specifically with stalking and harassment offences.

The CPS maintains a central record of the number of employees who have been trained on the law on stalking by way of the e-Learning courses. 1581 of its employees in post on 23 October 2014 have completed all elements of either of the e-Learning courses in the period between 1 November 2012 (the month when the Cyber Stalking e-Learning module was revised to include the new stalking offences) and 23 October 2014.

In October 2014 the CPS issued follow-up, face-to-face training material on the Stalking and Harassment offences. It can be used flexibly at a local CPS level; accordingly, its delivery is not recorded on a central database.

Although there are no current plans for new training products to be launched, the CPS will continue to train its staff in this critical area of work.