With cases of stalking having substantially increased between 2020 and 2021, North Wales MS and Shadow Social Justice Minister, Mark Isherwood, has called for more to be done to prevent stalking, for improved police handling of stalking, and for perpetrator programmes for stalkers across Wales.
Speaking in yesterday’s debate on Stalking in the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood referred to Office for National Statistics figures published last March which found that although most crime figures dropped in Wales and England during 2020, recorded stalking and harassment offences had increased by 20% during the coronavirus lockdown, with the figure rising to 31% as restrictions eased in the summer, and stated that the Anti-Stalking Charity ‘Paladin’ said most victims were reporting being stalked via social media, messaging apps and email, but physical stalking was also happening despite the lockdown.
He said that stalking is increasingly being recognised as a form of domestic abuse within the criminal justice system, with Crown Prosecution Service analysis finding the majority of offences are committed by ex-partners, and highlighted that although a record 2,288 charges were brought in 2019-20 - more than double the number five years previously, the percentage of reported cases charged fell from 23% in year ending March 2016 to only 11% in year ending March 2020.
Calling for action, he said:
“The increase in stalking offences is more than a matter of regret. The new Curriculum can and must foster a culture that prevents the occurrence of stalking in the first place. New guidance for Planning Bodies should ensure that the safety of women and others at risk, including Disabled People, is considered in the design of public spaces.
“Providers of specialist support for survivors of stalking must also be sustainably resourced, and included in the design and delivery of related services.
“Our Amendment 2, calling on the Welsh Government to work with both Police Forces and Police and Crime Commissioners to improve police handling of stalking, is essentially a technical amendment, which Members should therefore support. While the role of a Commissioner is to hold Chief Constables and their Police Forces to account, Chief Constables and their Police Forces are responsible for the operational delivery of Policing services.”
He added:
“Anti-Stalking Charity Paladin had previously highlighted the lack of perpetrator programmes for stalkers. Hence, our amendment 3 calls on the Welsh Government to ensure that ‘perpetrator programmes are available across Wales’.
“Last December, I noted here that I was one of the three party spokespeople who took the Welsh Government to the line over passage of the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015, securing Welsh Government pledges in several areas, including accredited Perpetrator Programmes to change the attitudes, behaviours and beliefs of perpetrators.
“The Minister responded then that he did not consider my amendment appropriate, but had jointly funded research to help inform future responses to perpetrators. However, the only mention of perpetrators in the latest ‘Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence: National Advisers Annual Plan’ refers to exploring ‘a blueprint for the whole system, that aims’, amongst other things, ‘to hold perpetrators accountable.”
Concluding, Mr Isherwood said:
“Plaid Cymru’s predictable call for the devolution of powers at the end of their motion distracts from a highly important debate – and gives the false impression that our Westminster colleagues are not also already switched onto to these matters. Hence our amendment 1, which calls on the Senedd to welcome the Stalking Protection Act 2019 – introduced by then 4 Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston and Conservative Peer Baroness Bertin - and the Lord’s vote in favour of to the amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill to make misogyny a hate crime in Wales and England, led by Conservative Baroness Newlove.”
ENDS