Skip to main content

Protection From Harassment

Volume 302: debated on Monday 1 December 1997

The text on this page has been created from Hansard archive content, it may contain typographical errors.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects the rules of court to be completed for section 3 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997; and if he will make a statement. [17738]

I have been asked to reply.Section 3 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 introduces, amongst other things, the power for a civil court to grant relief to a victim of harassment by way of an injunction and whereby the breach of an injunction granted by that civil court may be dealt with as a criminal offence. Subsections 3(1) and 3(2) are in force, and breach of an injunction made under those subsections may at present be punished as a contempt of court by up to two years' imprisonment. Rules and forms for subsections 3(3)-3(9) have been drafted for use by the High Court, county courts, the Crown Court and magistrates' courts to ensure that the process of treating a breach as a criminal offence works effectively. Consultation on these is under way and, as soon as it is complete, the outstanding subsections will be commenced.