Stalking & Harrassment

1. Number of stalking and harassment incidents reported to Cheshire Constabulary since 2005.
2. Number of domestic violence related stalking and harassment incidents reported to Cheshire Constabulary since 2005.
3. Number of cases involving stalking and harassment that have been referred to Multi-agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs) since 2007.
4. Using the cases identified for question 3), how many repeat incidents occurred post referral to a MARAC? (Plus, if possible, a break-down of type of incidents reported, i.e. continued stalking and harassment, assault, sexual assault, attempted murder, murder.)

In accordance with section 1(1) (b) of the Act our response is provided below;

Question 1

Reports of stalking and harassment (01/01/05 - 31/07/09)

Question 2

We are unable to provide this data for you. To retrieve the information from the Children and Vulnerable Adults database (CAVA) would entail manually extracting such information from between 10,000 and 12,000 records. This is estimated would exceed the appropriate limit. (See below)

Question 3 and 4

Please see the comments from the Public Protection Unit as follows:

'Stalking and Harassment for the purposes of Police Investigation fall within the Domestic Abuse Arena.

The ACPO definition relates to threatening behaviour, violence or abuse, which includes psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional.

For the purposes of referral to MARAC, the above are not separated and therefore I cannot readily obtain the statistics requested.'

Therefore as with Question 2 this would again exceed the appropriate limit.

The appropriate limit is defined in the Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004, which is covered by statutory Instrument Number 3244 of 2004. Furthermore, Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows a public authority to refuse to respond to a request for information where the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit as defined by the above mentioned regulations.