Louise Haigh MP has welcomed tough new action against perpetrators of stalking and spiking for the South Yorkshire region.

The Government is today introducing new legislation to deliver on its commitment to tackle the scourge of violence against women and girls.

The Bill contains a range of new measures to strengthen enforcement and better protect victims, such as making it easier for courts to issue Stalking Protection Orders, introducing a new offence for spiking and improving information sharing with victims.

Several reforms seek to tackle the rise of stalking specifically, which has increased by 10 % over the past year. In South Yorkshire, over 23,509 stalking and harassment offences were recorded by the police.

Not knowing the identity of an online stalker can be extremely unsettling with victims left in the dark as to whether the offender is known to them, which can put them in more danger.

New ‘Right to Know’ guidance will be brought into force, empowering the police to release the identity of an online stalker at the earliest opportunity. This will provide victims who are subject to this chilling crime with greater reassurance that they will be quickly told the identity of the individual threatening them online.

Stalking Protection Orders (SPOs) can also ban stalkers from going within a certain distance of their victims or contacting them and can also compel them to attend a perpetrator programme to address the root causes of their behaviour.

Currently, however, these can only be applied when an offender is convicted and when a protection order was in place before they went on trial.

A BBC investigation earlier this year found that since SPOs were introduced back in 2020, just 1,439 had been issued by the 40 police forces. This is despite over 440,000 offences being recorded by the police over the same period.

Under Labour’s new measures, courts will be able to directly apply protection orders on those who have been acquitted if there is enough evidence to suggest that they are still a risk to the victim. 

Louise Haigh MP for Sheffield Heeley, said: 

“Even though we have come a long way, progress towards meaningful change for women has been too slow. For too long, violence against women and girls has been treated as an inevitability, rather than the national emergency that it is.

“That’s why I’m so pleased that this Government is taking real and urgent action. Women and girls in Sheffield Heeley and across the country deserve to live their lives free from fear. I believe these new measures will make it easier to protect victims and hold perpetrators to account, ensuring that stalking and spiking are tackled head-on.

“One of this government’s key missions is to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. This is just the beginning, and I will keep fighting to make sure victims get the vital protections they so desperately deserve.”