The College of Policing sets standards and provides relevant training products and services to police forces. This includes a College of Policing training package on stalking, which was completed 56,748 times between October 2012 and 30 September 2014 by police officers and staff in England and Wales, and continues to be available.

Neither the College of Policing nor the Home Office holds information which breaks this figure down by the number of police officers and staff in England and Wales that have completed the training.

In 2013-14, 743 prosecutions were commenced under the new stalking legislation. This is a significant increase from 2012-13 and shows that the legislation is taking effect.

We are also working with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to raise awareness and improve professional knowledge.

To ensure prosecutors’ knowledge is continuously refreshed, in April 2014, the CPS launched a specific e-learning module on stalking which focused on victim support, working with the police and ensuring a strong case is built from the start. The College of Policing is also undertaking a review of how stalking incidents are investigated by the police. This will include how the police understand what constitutes a course of conduct in policing, how the police support victims, and further training on the appropriate use of Police Information Notices.

Since April 2014, offences of stalking and harassment are being reported separately in Police Recorded Crime figures. This will allow us to monitor the impact of the legislation more effectively.

Convicted stalkers will already be captured on the Police National Computer. We are working to make better use of existing databases and improve connectivity and information sharing rather than creating new databases or registers for each and every offence.

The Home Office does not hold the information requested. Individual police forces are responsible for collecting information relating to the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme.

As part of its commitment to take forward the recommendations arising from the report published in March 2014 by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary "Everyone’s business: Improving the police response to domestic abuse", the Home Office is taking forward proposals to develop national data standards that enable consistent and comparable data on domestic abuse to be collected by the police and submitted as part of the Annual Data Return from April 2015. We also plan to evaluate by the end of the financial year how roll-out of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme has been implemented, and we will be working with the police to collect data on the number of national disclosures to support this evaluation.

In addition, the police are incorporating the Scheme into their action plans setting out how they are taking steps to improve their approach to domestic abuse.

The Home Office does not hold the information requested. Individual police forces are responsible for collecting information relating to the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme.

As part of its commitment to take forward the recommendations arising from the report published in March 2014 by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary "Everyone’s business: Improving the police response to domestic abuse", the Home Office is taking forward proposals to develop national data standards that enable consistent and comparable data on domestic abuse to be collected by the police and submitted as part of the Annual Data Return from April 2015. We also plan to evaluate by the end of the financial year how roll-out of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme has been implemented, and we will be working with the police to collect data on the number of national disclosures to support this evaluation.

In addition, the police are incorporating the Scheme into their action plans setting out how they are taking steps to improve their approach to domestic abuse.

The Home Office Counting Rules provide guidance to police forces on all matters that relate to the recording of crime and disposals. They are issued annually by the Home Office.

This Government is committed to increasing the transparency of information available to the public on

recorded crime and outcomes. From April 2014, we introduced the recorded crime outcomes framework, replacing the previous regime of detections. This will inform the public how forces have dealt with 100% of crimes reported to them. For the first time, therefore, the public will be able to see how those crimes previously recorded as ‘undetected’ and as requiring ‘no further action’ have been resolved. The first data will be available in July 2015.

The information requested is not held centrally by the Home Office. Until recently, information has only been collected on crime outcomes that involve action being taken by the police. These were part of the former detections framework before 2013/14, and the new outcomes framework after that.

In April 2014, a new, broader crime outcomes framework was introduced, providing much greater transparency on how crimes are resolved by the police. This framework includes all scenarios where no further action was taken by the police. From April 2014 onwards, data is being collected on this new framework, and the first full set of statistics will be published in July 2015.

I will write to the hon. Member.

Any decision to review or update police guidance on Police Information Notices is an operational matter for the College of Policing. I am encouraged that the National Policing Lead on stalking and the Director of Public Prosecutions have committed to establishing a Joint National Protocol to drive improvements in the investigation of stalking and harassment. The new Protocol will challenge the inappropriate use of Police Information Notices.

If my Honourable Friend has specific concerns, I would encourage him to write to me.

Any decision to review or update police guidance on Police Information Notices is an operational matter for the College of Policing. I am encouraged that the National Policing Lead on stalking and the Director of Public Prosecutions have committed to establishing a Joint National Protocol to drive improvements in the investigation of stalking and harassment. The new Protocol will challenge the inappropriate use of Police Information Notices.

If my Honourable Friend has specific concerns, I would encourage him to write to me.

Any decision to review or update police guidance on Police Information Notices is an operational matter for the College of Policing. I am encouraged that the National Policing Lead on stalking and the Director of Public Prosecutions have committed to establishing a Joint National Protocol to drive improvements in the investigation of stalking and harassment. The new Protocol will challenge the inappropriate use of Police Information Notices.

If my Honourable Friend has specific concerns, I would encourage him to write to me.

Any decision to review or update police guidance on Police Information Notices is an operational matter for the College of Policing. I am encouraged that the National Policing Lead on stalking and the Director of Public Prosecutions have committed to establishing a Joint National Protocol to drive improvements in the investigation of stalking and harassment. The new Protocol will challenge the inappropriate use of Police Information Notices.

If my Honourable Friend has specific concerns, I would encourage him to write to me.

Does the Minister share my concern at reports that, because of pressure on police numbers, police officers are increasingly attending domestic violence incidents singly, which makes it more difficult for them to separate partners and puts the officers themselves at risk?

[holding answer 18 November 2013]: The former Association of Chief Police Officers has previously assessed the cost of gun licences. They estimated

that the cost to the taxpayer was £17.2 million in the year 2009-10. We are working with police and shooting organisations to consider licensing fees in the long term. It is important that we achieve a balance between an efficient system and fair fee level.