Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to introduce legislation making it an offence to take multiple images of an individual, unless it is in the public interest to do so, without that person's permission and where the intent was neither legitimate nor lawful.

The existing law offers protection to anyone subject to intrusive and harassing behaviour from those that seek to take images of them. Depending on the facts of the case, images taken with the intention of causing alarm or distress to the victim may amount to harassment. The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 already makes it an offence for someone to pursue a course of conduct which amounts to harassment and which the perpetrator knows, or ought to know, amounts to harassment of the other. Harassment is generally understood to involve improper, oppressive and unreasonable conduct that is targeted at an individual and calculated to alarm them or cause them distress. If such behaviour is reported to the police, they will investigate and the Crown Prosecution Service will decide whether a prosecution should be brought. The courts will determine whether the elements of any offence are made out

We continue to keep the law under review but have no current plans to introduce further legislation.