Who the Suzy Lamplugh Trust is#
The trust was set up in 1986 after Suzy Lamplugh, a 25-year-old estate agent, went to meet a client and was never seen again. It began as a personal safety charity, and it still trains employers on lone working, but most people meet it today through the National Stalking Helpline, which it opened in 2010 and says has helped more than 85,000 people. It campaigned for the stalking offences added to the Protection from Harassment Act in 2012 and for stalking protection orders, which arrived in 2020.
Reaching the National Stalking Helpline#
The helpline gives practical information on risk, safety planning and the law to people being stalked, to their friends and family, and to professionals supporting them. It is open on weekdays, with two late evenings, and closed at weekends and on bank holidays; the contact page has the current hours. When the line is busy, you can write through an online form and an adviser replies by email. Calls are free and, on the trust's account, do not show on BT landline bills. Deaf callers can reach an interpreter through SignVideo, and the trust has short explainer videos and leaflets in ten languages, Arabic, Polish and Urdu among them.
An adviser will ask what has happened, whether you have been to the police and how you are feeling, and you can skip any question that feels too personal. Some callers are offered an advocate, who can press the police to investigate, assess risk and plan your safety, speak for you to housing, social services or an employer, and in some areas go to court with you. Professionals refer clients through a form, and the trust says advocacy is not guaranteed.
In London a separate Stalking Support Service, recommissioned for 2026 to 2030, adds court support and works whether or not you have reported to the police. The helpline serves people living in the UK, not callers from abroad.
What its advice means for a new name#
The trust publishes nothing about changing your name. Its leaflet Top Tips: What to do if you are being stalked is still the most useful thing to read first, because its digital safety section is about what a stalker can learn: type your name into search engines to see what is public, tighten privacy settings on every account, change passwords and security questions the stalker could guess, and ask friends and family not to post pictures or details that give away where you are. If you change your name, run those checks on both names, and share the new one only with people who need it.
The helpline's work is built around a safety plan, so a new name is worth raising with an adviser before you sign anything: when to make the change, who to tell first, and what to keep in the old name while a police case is open.
Records a stalker could search#
- The deed itself. A deed poll you keep unenrolled is filed nowhere. Enrolment, which GOV.UK prices at £53.05, leads to a notice in The Gazette showing the new name and where you live, unless a judge accepts a strong reason to print only your first name or surname.
- Home Office documents. The Home Office's names guidance treats vulnerable victims of crime, stalking among them, as an exception: it may protect their identity and allow more than one name, with the application backed by the police or another accredited organisation.
- The electoral register. Anonymous registration can be supported by a court order protecting you, such as a restraining order or harassment injunction, or by an attestation from a senior police officer. Keeping your address off your records explains the form.
Can someone find out my new name? goes through the other records that link two names, and changing your name to stay safe suggests an order for updating them.
This page describes what the Suzy Lamplugh Trust publishes on its own website, read on 26 October 2026. The trust has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
