A major independent review of the United Kingdom’s stalking laws was announced on 22 October 2025. Led by Richard Wright KC, the review aims to assess whether current laws are effective in addressing the behaviour of fixated individuals, especially when enabled or amplified by modern digital technologies.1
The review seeks to build a clearer understanding of how fixated individuals operate across both physical and virtual spaces, and how they blur the lines between online harassment, surveillance, and offline intrusion. It will also examine whether current legal tools can keep pace with their behaviours.
Digital footprints and evolving attack modalities
The review explicitly acknowledges the challenge posed by “insidious, emerging forms of stalking, including those carried out online or using new technology”, meaning that fixated individuals can now gain proximity not only in physical spaces (i.e. loitering, property interference or unwanted visits), but via online impersonation, deepfake audio/video, social media fixation, or GPS/IoT device misuse.
Part of the reasoning behind the review is a recognition of systemic shortfalls in how law enforcement responds to stalking and harassment complaints.2 The Home Office notes approximately 1.4 million people aged 16+ experienced stalking in the previous year,3 many of which go unaddressed due to failings in the current legal framework around both physical and digital harassment.4
The review is expected to report in March 2026. In the interim, we anticipate increased interest from law enforcement, the private security sector and corporate risk teams across three key areas:
- Whether current definitions and enforcement mechanisms are sufficient to address increasingly complex forms of digital stalking and harassment, particularly as perpetrated by fixated individuals using emerging technologies;5
- How the risks posed by fixated individuals are assessed and prioritised by police, prosecutors and the courts; and
- Whether preventive tools, such as Stalking Protection Orders and corporate protective measures, will evolve in scope or application as a result of the review’s findings.
As the review progresses, one of the most critical areas requiring scrutiny is the digital toolkit now available to fixated individuals. From off-the-shelf spyware and GPS trackers to AI-powered voice cloning, deepfake generation and unauthorised use of IoT devices, the technological barrier to harassment continues to fall.
The review will need to grapple with the pace of change, the ambiguity of digital harm, and the need for law enforcement and private-sector risk teams to have clearer, faster routes to action.
For private clients, family offices and those impacted by fixated individuals, the stakes are not just legal, but reputational and psychological and the need for modernised legal redress has never been more urgent.