One year on from the stalking super complaint findings – Suzy Lamplugh Trust, on behalf of the National Stalking Consortium, demands police transparency, accountability and commitment to ensure meaningful and systemic change for victims.
London, UK – 25th September 2025: Today marks the one-year anniversary of the landmark Police Response to Stalking report, a joint investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), and the College of Policing, which exposed serious and systemic failings in how police forces across England and Wales respond to stalking.
One year on, we remain deeply concerned by the widespread inconsistencies in the implementation of the report’s recommendations. While we welcome the recent National Police Chiefs’ Council’s (NPCC) report and acknowledge the efforts of all forces in making strides towards improved responses, the lack of a national requirement for individual police forces to publicly share their progress seriously hinders the specialist stalking sector’s ability to monitor local progress and hold forces accountable. Without this transparency, it is impossible to fully assess where improvements are being made – and where they are not. While we acknowledge the efforts made by the NPCC to coordinate and support national improvements, the absence of ongoing and publicly available reports from individual forces limits the accountability necessary to drive real change.
To mark this anniversary, Suzy Lamplugh Trust, on behalf of the National Stalking Consortium, has released Ensuring Accountability: One year on from the stalking super complaint findings. We are calling for a uniform and whole-system approach to stalking across all police forces and agencies; urgent and sustained funding to support both victims and frontline professionals, and the active inclusion of the independent specialist stalking sector in training, independently evaluated stalking perpetrator interventions, and any guidance development related to stalking. To turn these commitments into meaningful action, we urge the following:
1. The NPCC must request biannual published progress reports from individual police forces, with clear metrics, to monitor ongoing implementation of the stalking super-complaint recommendations and ensure accountability where progress is lacking.
2. Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) must ring-fence funding for specialist stalking support services, ensuring sustainable support for victims and accredited, independently evaluated stalking intervention programmes for perpetrators.
3. The College of Policing must advocate for independent specialist stalking training development and delivery across all police forces, especially for internal force designated stalking champions, Subject Matter Experts, Stalking Point of Contacts.
Responsibility does not sit with policing alone. The Ministry of Justice has yet to fully implement its recommendation to routinely publish data on Stalking Protection Orders (SPOs), including the number applied for, granted, and breached. Likewise, the Home Office has taken some actions, there are recommendations that have not been fully implemented (such as recommendation 6 to review the impact of the principal crime rule on the identification and investigation of stalking). The Trust urges the Home Office to commit to monitor the impact of the principal crime rule on an ongoing basis. Without a whole system response, the response to stalking will remain fragmented, and victims will continue to fall through the cracks.
Catherine McLaughlin, Deputy CEO, Suzy Lamplugh Trust, says: “One year on from the publication of the super-complaint findings, victims of stalking are still experiencing a postcode lottery. While we welcome national-level engagement, real change will only happen when every police force is held accountable for progress. Without mandated local reporting, sustainable funding, and meaningful inclusion of specialist services, we risk repeating the same failings that the super-complaint evidenced. Now is the time for commitment to systemic change for victims.”
Sarah Poolman, Deputy Chief Constable and national policing lead for stalking and harassment, National Police Chiefs’ Council, says: “The National Police Chiefs Council continues to work with all police forces to ensure ongoing improvements for victims of stalking. We welcome the ongoing collaboration with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust and wider National Stalking Consortium to ensure ongoing accountability by all police forces for the implementation of the Super complaint recommendations, and we will continue to request the publication of progress reports to ensure transparency.”
Rhianon Bragg, victim of stalking, says: “Although it is positive to see that progress has been made by a number of forces, I am concerned that there is still no uniform response to stalking and, in the meantime, lives are being destroyed by stalkers. It is crucial that every police force publishes their progress reports to signal a commitment to all stalking victims and ensure accountability. We need ring-fenced funding for specialist stalking support services to guarantee high-quality victim support and perpetrator interventions, such as embedding the Multi Agency Stalking Intervention Programmes (MASIPs©) across all forces. The anniversary of the super complaint findings is an important landmark, and we must continue to work together to make sure this joint investigation was not done in vain.”