Section 1: Applications for Orders
Subsection (1) sets out who may apply for an order, what a stalking protection order is, and the grounds on which an application for an order may be made.
	The order will be available on application to a magistrates’ court by a chief officer of police.
	As stipulated in subsection (3), a chief officer of police for a police area in England and Wales may make an application only in respect of someone who resides in their police area, or who they believe is in that area or is intending to come to it. This provision does not apply to the chief constables of the British Transport Police and of the Ministry of Defence Police, who may apply for an order under section 1(1) but who do not have a territorial police area.
	For the purposes of making an application, the chief officer of police must be satisfied that the defendant has carried out acts associated with stalking; that they pose a risk of stalking to another person (as defined in subsection (4)); and that the order is necessary in order to protect the other person from that risk.
	Subsection (1)(c) provides that the individual to be protected by the order does not have to have been the victim of the acts associated with stalking which provide the grounds for the application. This scenario could arise if a perpetrator is stalking other people connected to that individual (such as family members, friends, or co-workers), knowing that this behaviour will impact on the individual who is the principle subject of the stalking acts. This is known as ‘stalking by proxy’.
	Subsection (2) sets out what a stalking protection order is: a preventative order which can impose both prohibitions and requirements on the perpetrator as are necessary for the purpose of preventing them from carrying out acts associated with stalking.
	An order can prohibit the defendant from doing something, as far as is necessary, to protect the other person from risk of stalking, and could for example include prohibiting the defendant from:
	entering certain locations or defined areas where the victim resides or frequently visits;
	contacting the victim by any means, including via telephone, post, email, SMS text message or social media;
	physically approaching the victim, at all or to within a specified distance.
	This is not an exhaustive list.
	An order can also require the defendant to do something, as far as is necessary, to protect the other person from risk of stalking. Positive requirements could include, for example, requiring the defendant to:
	attend a perpetrator intervention programme;
	attend a mental health assessment;
	This is not an exhaustive list.
	Subsection (5) provides that the stalking behaviour considered when determining an application for an order can have taken place in any part of the United Kingdom, or abroad. This can also include behaviour that took place prior to this Act coming into force. This Act does not define stalking. However, subsection (4) sets out what may characterise a risk associated with stalking and subsection (6) signposts readers to section 2A of the 1997 Act for examples of acts associated with stalking. The 1997 Act similarly does not define stalking, but provides a (non-exhaustive) list of examples of "acts or omissions associated with stalking" – see paragraph 14 above.