Bill on stalking commandeered by Home Office

Accusations were traded yesterday after the Government blocked a back- bench Bill to outlaw stalking, and announced that it was preparing its own legislation.

Labour MP Janet Anderson told the Commons that government tactics meant "victims of stalking would have to wait at least another year to be put out of their misery".

The single word "object", called out by a Government whip as Ms Anderson's stalking Bill came up for a formal Second Reading, consigned the measure to legislative oblivion.

Earlier in the day, David Maclean, Minister of State at the Home Office, said the Government would publish its own proposals "at the earliest opportunity".

Dismissing Ms Anderson's Bill as "full of flaws", he said: "We believe its scope is too wide. It could mean that innocent people going about their lawful business could find themselves branded as criminals."

He added: "She has made a valiant attempt to come forward with a Bill, but unfortunately the scope of it is much too wide."

Labour believes the Government has simply seen tackling the menace of stalking as a popular issue - ideal for the kind of action Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, likes to unveil at Conservative Party conferences.

Ms Anderson said: "Ministers know very well that they could amend the Bill in committee. Their proposals will be similar to mine but what they cannot stand is the thought of a Labour MP getting the credit for putting this measure on to the statute book."

Ms Anderson, MP for Rossendale and Darwen, estimates that around 3,000 people are stalked each year.

She drafted her Bill after talks with the Lord Chancellor, senior Home Office officials, the Police Federation and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.

It proposed enabling magistrates to order an exclusion zone around a victim and require the stalker to undergo counselling.

Breaking the order would be a criminal offence.

The Bill included a legal definition of stalking - making it an offence to follow, watch, approach by telephone, interfere with property, leave offensive material or regularly visit "so that the other person is likely to be harassed, alarmed, distressed or to fear for their safety".

Mr Howard insisted on Radio 4's World at One programme that he was "as keen as anyone to take effective action to end the misery which is caused by stalking".

But he added: "You can't do that by a Bill which isn't workable and which criminalises many innocent activities."

Under existing legislation, stalkers cannot be prosecuted if their obsessive pursuit falls short of intentional harassment or threatening behaviour, though they may still be causing terror to their victims.