Transparency data

NPCC response to the stalking super-complaint

Published 8 January 2025

Applies to England and Wales

Letter information

From:
Gavin Stephens QPM Chair National Police Chiefs’ Council

From:
Dr Paul Mills QPM Deputy Chief Constable National Lead for Stalking & Harassment Offences

To: Rachel Watson Director General, Independent Office for Police Conduct

To: Andy Cooke QPM DL His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary

To: Chief Constable Sir Andy Marsh QPM Chief Executive, Officer College of Policing

Sent: 22 November 2024

NPCC 56-Day Update Super-Complaint - The Police Response to Stalking

We write jointly, further to the publication on 27th September 2024, of the super-complaint report into the policing response to stalking. As requested, we set out below, the 56-day post publication update on the policing response to the complaint.

The letter is structured to provide updates on the progress made to date in relation to:

• specific recommendations to the NPCC
• recommendations made jointly to the NPCC and other partner agencies
• recommendations made to Chief Constables in England and Wales

Overarchingly, the NPCC and Chief Constables welcome the publication of the super-complaint report and are committed to using the recommendations to drive further improvements in the policing response to these life changing crimes. Since the publication of the report, the NPCC chair and NPCC lead have looked to embed the report findings through the following key activities:

• NPCC chair high level briefing to Chief Constables on the findings of the report at Chief Constables Council (September 2024)
• NPCC lead letter to all Chief Constables, setting out the findings of the report, required next steps and sign-posting existing contemporary guidance and practice (September 2024)
• NPCC lead hosted national stalking Single Point of Contact (SPOC) conference in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which brought together SPOC’s from across England and Wales. During the conference the super-complaint investigation team were invited to present to practitioner attendees the findings of the investigation (October 2024)
• NPCC lead representation at Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls partnership round-table event to discuss the super-complaint findings and how partners can work together to improve the response to stalking (November 2024)
• formulation of a NPCC lead led partnership implementation meeting, to coordinate the response of the NPCC, Home Office, College of Policing and CPS to the super-complaint recommendations (Ongoing)
• attendance by the NPCC lead national staff officer at regional police stalking working groups, to discuss the findings of the super-compliant and provide advice and guidance on addressing the recommendations for forces (Ongoing)

Specific Recommendations to the NPCC

Recommendation 21: To the NPCC Lead for stalking and harassment.

By 27 March 2025, to collate and disseminate information to chief constables on the dedicated stalking co-ordination roles that exist. This information should support chief constables to consider whether and how dedicated stalking officers and staff can be used to support the police response to stalking.

The national policing lead welcomes the opportunity this recommendation presents to provide Chief Constables with an overview of the current dedicated stalking coordination roles which are in existence across the 43 police forces in England and Wales. Further to the population and receipt of individual force action plans, the NPCC leads Staff Officer will in December 2024, commence a piece of work to bring together an overview of the different models which are in place in respective forces and upon completion, this will be presented to the National Stalking and Harassment Offences Working Group (NSHOWG) in March 2025. Thereafter, the product will be disseminated to all Chief Constables, such that it may assist them in considering resourcing and structural options to further improve their response to stalking offences.

Recommendation 24: To the NPCC Lead for stalking and harassment.

By 27 March 2025, begin working with the NPCC lead for artificial intelligence to explore how artificial intelligence could be used to support the police response to stalking. This should include developing a proof of concept for using artificial intelligence to screen incidents and crimes to help identify stalking and risks associated with stalking.

The NPCC recognises the opportunities technological advancements such as artificial intelligence can have to further improve the police response to stalking. Initial meetings have taken place with the NPCC AI portfolio and the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme (VKPP) to identify and understand existing technical solutions where AI is currently being tested within policing through a ‘call for practice’ exercise. The results of this will then inform the refinement of potential opportunities, relative to this recommendation. In addition, opportunities are also being explored around a potential future application to the Police Science Technology and Research fund, to develop proof of concept pilot initiative for evaluation.

Specific recommendations made jointly to the NPCC and other partner agencies.

Recommendation 2: To the Home Office.

By 27 March 2025, to work with the College of Policing, the NPCC lead for stalking and harassment and the National Stalking Consortium to update information on stalking or harassment in the Home Office crime recording rules for frontline officers and staff. Information on stalking within the rules should align with how stalking is described in the statutory guidance on the Stalking Protection Act for the police.

The NPCC lead has strong links with the Home Office and College of Policing with well-established meeting structures to drive this recommendation activity.

Since changes to Home Office crime recording being introduced in May 2023, the national NPCC stalking lead has worked with colleagues from NPCC Domestic Abuse and VAWG portfolios, the Home Office National Crime Registrar, Suzy Lamplugh Trust and DA Commissioners Office to complete a 12-month impact review. Throughout this collaboration, improvement opportunities have been identified to amend the crime recording rules for officers and staff.

In addition, recommendation six of the super-complaint requires the Home Office to review the impact of the principal crime rule on the identification and investigation of stalking. As a result, the HOCR Impact Review Working Group will be shortly reconfigured under a new Home Office Task and Finish Group, which will include representation from the NPCC lead and will ensure changes are correctly described in the statutory guidance on the Stalking Protection Act.

Recommendation 27: To bodies subject to recommendations.

By 22 November 2024 (56 days from publication), write to HMICFRS, the IOPC and the College of Policing setting out their response to the recommendations made to them. Chief constables should direct their response to the NPCC which should provide a collective response on behalf of all police forces. PCCs and their mayor equivalents should direct their response to the APCC which should provide a collective response on their behalf.

As set out within this letter, the NPCC has complied with the requirement to provide its response to the IOPC, HMICFRS and College of Policing within the required 56 days. Further progress against recommendations will be monitored through the NPCC lead chaired National Stalking and Harassment Offences Working Group (NSHOWG) and an additional written update will be provided in June 2025.

Recommendations made to Chief Constables in England and Wales

Recommendation 29: To the NPCC.

By 27 June 2025 (nine months from publication), share a report summarising the progress forces have made against their action plans with HMICFRS, the IOPC and the College of Policing. This report will be published on the GOV.UK police super-complaints webpage.

To facilitate coordination of the policing response, the NPCC portfolio lead wrote to all forces, following the report publication on 27th September 2024, with a template action plan containing the recommendations for Chief Constables and PCCs. In addition, a compendium of existing practice guidance to assist forces with bringing improvement plans together and reviewing their current approach was also circulated. Chief Constables were asked to identify an executive and operational lead with responsibility for overseeing the response to the super-complaint and were requested to produce and publish an action plan on their websites by 22nd November 2024. We can confirm, all forces in England and Wales have identified leads as requested (Appendix A) and have published an action plan which sets out what they will do to address the recommendations made in the super-complaint.

The NPCC will continue to work with and support Chief Constables in responding to and delivering the 14 recommendations for forces outlined in the report.

Summary

The NPCC welcomes the opportunity to provide a more comprehensive response to the progress made against the recommendations in June 2025, and in the meantime, look forward to continuing to work closely with your respective teams to further improve the police response to stalking.

Appendix A – list of force leads and action plans

Force	Executive Lead	Operational Lead	Website link
Avon & Somerset	CS Wiggington	CI Paul	Action Plan
Bedfordshire	ACC Murphy	DI Bozward	Action Plan
British Transport Police	T/DCS White	DCI Mellor	Action Plan
Cambridgeshire	ACC Lukey	Supt. Nash	Action Plan
Cheshire	DCS Lee	DCI Doleman	Action Plan
Cleveland	ACC Baker	Supt Wilson	Action Plan
Cumbria	ACC Stalker	DCS Ashton	Action Plan
Derbyshire	ACC Abdy	DS Pope	Action Plan
Devon & Cornwall	ACC Pearce	CI Perriam	Action Plan
Dorset	ACC Callaghan	D/Supt. Beashel	Action Plan
Durham	ACC McAdam	DCI Fuller	Action Plan
Dyfed Powys	T/ACC Phillips	DCI Williams	Action Plan
Essex	ACC Mariner	D/Supt. Morrissey	Action Plan
Gloucestershire	CS Paterson	D/Supt. Fletcher	Action Plan
GMP	ACC Parker	DCS Jones	Action Plan
Gwent	ACC Townsend	D/Supt. Chaplin	Action Plan
Hampshire	DCS Bitters	DCI Leeson	Action Plan
Hertfordshire	ACC Telfer	C/Supt Ghaboos	Action Plan
Humberside	ACC McLoughlin	D/Supt Booker	Action Plan
Kent	DCS McDermott	DCS McDermott	Action Plan
Lancashire	ACC Winstanley	DCI Dickinson	Action Plan
Leicestershire	ACC Kerr	D/Supt. Baker	Action Plan
Lincolnshire	ACC Mayo	DCI Cox	Action Plan
London, Met	Cmdr. Southworth	D/Supt. Wadey	Action Plan
London, City of	DCS Horsburgh	T/CI Hay	Action Plan
Merseyside	DCS Lamb	Rachael Reece	Action Plan
Norfolk	T/ACC Balmer	D/Supt. Hinds	Action Plan
North Wales	DCS Beck	DCI Curry	Action Plan
North Yorkshire	ACC Clarke	D/Supt. Wright	Action Plan
Northamptonshire	ACC James	D/Supt. Banfield	Action Plan
Northumbria	ACC Simpson	DCI Pollock	Action Plan
Nottinghamshire	ACC Griffin	DCS Scurr	Action Plan
South Wales	ACC Davies	DCS Jones	Action Plan
South Yorkshire	T/ACC Barnett	D/Supt. Cowley	Action Plan
Staffordshire	DCC Roy	Supt. Furlong	Action Plan
Suffolk	ACC Bridger	CS Topping	Action Plan
Surrey	ACC Jones	Supt.  Ramm	Action Plan
Sussex	DCS McDonagh	DCI Lewis	Action Plan
Thames Valley	ACC Barrow-Grint	D/Supt. Barnham	Action Plan
Warwickshire	ACC Smith	DCI Kendall	Action Plan
West Mercia	T/ACC Marsh	D/Supt. Lowe	Action Plan
West Midlands	ACC Mattinson	CS Hopkins	Action Plan
West Yorkshire	ACC Miller	DCI Raw	Action Plan
Wiltshire	ACC Cooper	DCS Coles	Action Plan