There was no offence which is described in law as "stalking" in the UK. An attempt to create such an offence by the Stalking Bill 1996 failed. The bill was presented to Parliament by Janet Anderson under the Ten Minute Rule, [1] with support from 64 other MPs. [2] The bill failed to get government support, as it was felt that the proposed offence failed to distinguish between reasonable and unreasonable conduct. [3]
Following the failure of the Stalking Bill to be enacted, an offence of "harassment" was later created in England and Wales by the enactment of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, which came into force on 16 June 1997. In Scots law, the 1997 act also created a civil remedy through non-harassment orders. [4] The Protection from Harassment Act was later amended by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, which added to it the specific offences of "stalking" and "stalking involving fear of violence or serious alarm or distress".
Abortion in the United Kingdom is legally available through the Abortion Act 1967 in Great Britain, and the Abortion (No.2) Regulations 2020.
A restraining order or protective order, abbreviated PFA, is an order used by a court to protect a person in a situation involving alleged domestic violence, child abuse, assault, harassment, stalking, or sexual assault. In the United States, every state has some form of domestic violence restraining order law, and many states also have specific restraining order laws for stalking and sexual assault.
Janet Anderson is an English Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rossendale and Darwen from 1992 until 2010, when she lost her seat. Her time as MP is remembered for her role as Minister for Tourism during the foot and mouth crisis, and her role in the 2009 expenses scandal.
Sexual Offences Act is a stock short title used for legislation in the United Kingdom and former British colonies and territories such as Antigua and Barbuda, Crown dependencies, Kenya, Lesotho, Republic of Ireland, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago relating to sexual offences.
The Hunting Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which bans the hunting of wild mammals with dogs in England and Wales; the Act does not cover the use of dogs in the process of flushing out an unidentified wild mammal, nor does it affect drag hunting, where hounds are trained to follow an artificial scent.
The Communications Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The act, which came into force on 25 July 2003, superseded the Telecommunications Act 1984. The new act was the responsibility of Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell. It consolidated the telecommunication and broadcasting regulators in the UK, introducing the Office of Communications (Ofcom) as the new industry regulator. On 28 December 2003 Ofcom gained its full regulatory powers, inheriting the duties of the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel). Among other measures, the act introduced legal recognition of community radio and paved the way for full-time community radio services in the UK, as well as controversially lifting many restrictions on cross-media ownership. It also made it illegal to use other people's Wi-Fi broadband connections without their permission. In addition, the legislation also allowed for the first time non-European entities to wholly own a British television company.
The Computer Misuse Act 1990 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, introduced partly in response to the decision in R v Gold & Schifreen (1988) 1 AC 1063. Critics of the bill complained that it was introduced hastily and was poorly thought out. Intention, they said, was often difficult to prove, and that the bill inadequately differentiated "joyriding" hackers like Gold and Schifreen from serious computer criminals. The Act has nonetheless become a model from which several other countries, including Canada and the Republic of Ireland, have drawn inspiration when subsequently drafting their own information security laws, as it is seen "as a robust and flexible piece of legislation in terms of dealing with cybercrime”. Several amendments have been passed to keep the Act up to date.
In the United Kingdom, a fixed penalty notice (FPN) is a notification of what is usually a minor fine for an alleged criminal offence, that unless settled will result in prosecution. Fixed penalty notices were introduced in Britain in the 1950s to deal with minor parking offences. Originally used by police and traffic wardens, their use has extended to other public officials and authorities, as has the range of offences for which they can be used.
A GPS tracking unit, geotracking unit, satellite tracking unit, or simply tracker is a navigation device normally on a vehicle, asset, person or animal that uses satellite navigation to determine its movement and determine its WGS84 UTM geographic position (geotracking) to determine its location. Satellite tracking devices send special satellite signals that are processed by a receiver.
Harassment is a topic which, in the past couple of decades, has been taken increasingly seriously in the United Kingdom, and has been the subject of a number of pieces of legislation.
The Public Order Act 1986 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It creates a number of public order offences. They replace similar common law offences and parts of the Public Order Act 1936. It implements recommendations of the Law Commission.
The Sexual Offences Act 1967 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It legalised homosexual acts in England and Wales, on the condition that they were consensual, in private and between two men who had attained the age of 21. The law was extended to Scotland by the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980 and to Northern Ireland by the Homosexual Offences Order 1982.
The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (c.37) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act was published on 2 December 1997 and received Royal Assent in July 1998. Its key areas were the introduction of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, Sex Offender Orders, Parenting Orders, granting local authorities more responsibilities with regards to strategies for reducing crime and disorder, and the introduction of law specific to 'racially aggravated' offences. The Act also abolished rebuttable presumption that a child is doli incapax and formally abolished the death penalty for the last civilian offences carrying it, namely treason and piracy.
The Protection from Harassment Act 1997 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. On introducing the Bill's second reading in the House of Lords, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, said, "The aim of this Bill is to protect the victims of harassment. It will protect all such victims whatever the source of the harassment—so-called stalking behaviour, racial harassment, or anti-social behaviour by neighbours." Home Office guidance on the Act says "The legislation was always intended to tackle stalking, but the offences were drafted to tackle any form of persistent conduct which causes another person alarm or distress."
Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or other electronic means to stalk or harass an individual, group, or organization. It may include false accusations, defamation, slander and libel. It may also include monitoring, identity theft, threats, vandalism, solicitation for sex, doxing, or blackmail.
Stalking is unwanted and/or repeated surveillance by an individual or group toward another person. Stalking behaviors are interrelated to harassment and intimidation and may include following the victim in person or monitoring them. The term stalking is used with some differing definitions in psychiatry and psychology, as well as in some legal jurisdictions as a term for a criminal offense.
Cyberstalking and cyberbullying are relatively new phenomena, but that does not mean that crimes committed through the network are not punishable under legislation drafted for that purpose. Although there are often existing laws that prohibit stalking or harassment in a general sense, legislators sometimes believe that such laws are inadequate or do not go far enough, and thus bring forward new legislation to address this perceived shortcoming. In the United States, for example, nearly every state has laws that address cyberstalking, cyberbullying, or both.
The Protection from Harassment Act (POHA) is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore that criminalises harassment, stalking, and other anti-social behaviour. The law is designed specifically to make acts of cyberbullying and online harassment a criminal offence.
Domestic violence in the United Kingdom is a criminal offence. Domestic violence or abuse can be physical, psychological, sexual, financial or emotional. In UK laws and legislation, the term "domestic abuse" is commonly used to encompass various forms of domestic violence.
The Stalking Protection Act 2019 is an Act of Parliament put forward as a private member's bill by then Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston which creates a civil protection order to prevent stalking.