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full screen Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M) and Minister for Gender Equality Paulina Brandberg (L) during a press conference where they receive the report of the investigation into a review of the no-contact legislation. In the middle, special investigator Lars Wallinder. Photo: Anders Wiklund/TT
Contact bans must be able to be issued in more cases than today and can cover an entire municipality.
That is what the government’s investigators suggest.
Prosecutors can, on application, issue a contact ban if there is a concrete risk of a person harassing, stalking or committing a crime against another named person. Most often it is about men who pursue an ex-partner.
Now the government’s investigator Lars Wallinder is putting forward proposals for more and more intrusive contact bans.
– I think these are proposals that will make a big, big difference, says Gender Equality Minister Paulina Brandberg (L).
“Been a prisoner”
The investigator proposes, among other things, that contact bans should be able to be issued on more grounds than today and increased opportunities to issue the ban even if the so-called banned person has not been convicted of any crime before.
In 2022, around 2,200 decisions were made on ordinary contact bans. They entail a ban on visiting or contacting the person to be protected.
An extended contact ban means that a person is also not allowed to stay close to, for example, the protected person’s home or workplace. Even more intrusive is a particularly extended no-contact order, which can cover a larger area.
Brandberg points out, however, that so far it has mostly been about a residential area.
– This has meant that the protected person has in reality been a prisoner in his own residential area, she says.
Only one
Now the government’s investigators are proposing that particularly extended contact bans should be able to cover an entire municipality. In addition, particularly extended contact bans must be able to be issued directly without a decision on ordinary contact bans being taken earlier.
In 2022, only 31 extended bans and one particularly extended contact ban were decided.
Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer welcomes the proposals and adds that a no-contact law that “moves the positions forward” is important to protect women from men’s violence.
The FACTS investigation’s proposal
Two new grounds for issuing a restraining order.
– If there is a risk of improper monitoring with GPS equipment or apps.
– If there is a risk of someone trying to influence a legal process
Increased opportunities to issue contact bans even if the person banned has not previously committed a crime.
Possible to issue specially extended contact bans without an ordinary contact ban being issued first.
Increased possibility to issue contact bans for larger areas, such as an entire municipality or larger.
In the event of a conviction for a crime against the health or freedom of a loved one, a contact ban shall be the main rule.
The house search must be used for the notification of decisions on contact bans.
The minimum penalty for breaching extended or particularly extended contact bans shall be imprisonment for at least three months.
The changes to the law are proposed to enter into force on 1 July 2025
Source: SOU 2024:13
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