{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/stalking-protection-act-2019/section-8",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/stalking-protection-act-2019/section-8.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/2019/9",
  "legislation_title": "Stalking Protection Act 2019",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/stalking-protection-act-2019",
  "path": "section/8",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "8",
  "heading": "Offence of breaching stalking protection order etc",
  "text": "(1) A person who, without reasonable excuse, breaches a stalking protection order or an interim stalking protection order commits an offence.\n(2) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—\n(a) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding the general limit in a magistrates’ court or to a fine or both, or\n(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or to a fine or both.\n(3) In relation to an offence committed before 2 May 2022, the reference in subsection (2)(a) to the general limit in a magistrates’ court is to be read as a reference to 6 months.\n(4) If a person is convicted of an offence under this section, it is not open to the court by or before which the person is convicted to make an order under section 80 of the Sentencing Code (conditional discharge).\n(5) In proceedings for an offence under this section, a copy of the original stalking protection order or interim stalking protection order, certified by the designated officer for the court which made it, is admissible as evidence of its having been made and of its contents to the same extent that oral evidence of those things is admissible in those proceedings.",
  "extent": "E+W",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Words in s. 8(2)(a) substituted (7.2.2023 at 12.00 p.m.) by The Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 (Magistrates’ Court Sentencing Powers) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/149), regs. 1(2), 2(1), Sch. Pt. 1"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Words in s. 8(3) substituted (28.4.2022) by The Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Commencement No. 33) and Sentencing Act 2020 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/500), regs. 1(2), 5(1), Sch. Pt. 1"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F3",
      "text": "Words in s. 8(3) substituted (7.2.2023 at 12.00 p.m.) by The Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 (Magistrates’ Court Sentencing Powers) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/149), regs. 1(2), 2(1), Sch. Pt. 1"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F4",
      "text": "Words in s. 8(4) substituted (1.12.2020) by Sentencing Act 2020 (c. 17), s. 416(1), Sch. 24 para. 298 (with Sch. 24 para. 447, Sch. 27); S.I. 2020/1236, reg. 2"
    },
    {
      "type": "I",
      "label": "I1",
      "text": "S. 8 in force at 20.1.2020 by S.I. 2020/26, reg. 2"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/9/section/8",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T09:04:20.452445+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}