Policing and Crime Act 2017

Stalking

175 Sentences for offences of putting people in fear of violence etc

(1) In the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 —

(a) in section 4 (putting people in fear of violence), in subsection (4)(a), for “five years” substitute “ten years”;

(b) in section 4A (stalking involving fear of violence or serious alarm or distress), in subsection (5)(a), for “five years” substitute “ten years”.

(2) In the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, in section 32 (racially or religiously aggravated harassment etc), in subsection (4)(b) (which specifies the penalty on conviction on indictment for an offence under that section which consists of a racially or religiously aggravated offence under section 4 or 4A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997), for “seven years” substitute “14 years”.

(3) The amendments made by this section apply only in relation to an offence committed on or after the day on which this section comes into force.

(4) Where the course of conduct constituting an offence is found to have occurred over a period of 2 or more days, or at some time during a period of 2 or more days, the offence must be taken for the purposes of subsection (3) to have been committed on the last of those days.