answer text |
<p>This government is committed to increasing the volumes of rape and serious sexual
offence cases that reach court.</p><p> </p><p>In 2019, we commissioned our end-to-end
Rape Review to better understand the justice system’s response to adult rape. Published
in 2021, our watershed report set stretching ambitions to return the volumes of adult
rape cases being referred by the police, charged by the CPS, and reaching court back
to 2016 levels by the end of this Parliament. In practice, this meant more than doubling
the number of adult rape cases reaching court compared to when the Review was first
commissioned, in 2019.</p><p> </p><p>The latest data shows that we have exceeded each
of these ambitions ahead of schedule. In July – September 2023, we recorded:</p><ul><li><strong>1,470
total police referrals, exceeding our 2016 ambition of 766 </strong>by 91% and now
more than triple (+219%) the 2019 quarterly average.</li><li><strong>668 CPS charges,
exceeding our ambition of 538 </strong>by 24% and now more than double (+174%) the
2019 quarterly average.</li><li><strong>665 Crown Court receipts, exceeding our ambition
of 553 </strong>by 20% and now more than double (+188%) the 2019 quarterly average.</li></ul><p>In
addition, the number of people prosecuted for an adult rape offence went up by 54%
in the last year (12 months to June), rising from 1,410 to 2,165. This is 32% higher
than in 2010 (1,644).</p><p> </p><p>But we are determined to build on these successes,
and continue to make excellent progress in delivering our Rape Review Action Plan
to support victims throughout the criminal justice system:</p><ul><li>For one, it
is right that rapists, and those convicted of the most serious sexual offences, remain
in prison for the whole of their custodial term and that they are subject to proper
supervision in the community on their release with a suitable license period. We will
legislate through our Sentencing Bil<strong>l</strong> to make sure that this happens.</li><li>Through
Operation Soteria, we are ensuring that every police force and CPS area embeds new,
transformative National Operating Models that will radically improve the way the police
investigate and the CPS prosecute adult rape. The five forces who first adopted Soteria
have all seen charges increase.</li><li>Having recruited 20,000 extra police officers,
bringing the total number to a record peak, by April 2024 2,000 officers will receive
specialist training on rape and sexual offences, making sure the police have the skills
and capability to investigate these crimes.</li><li>We continue to offer our 24/7
support line for victims of rape and sexual violence, ensuring victims of these abhorrent
crimes always have someone on hand to support them.</li><li>We are quadrupling victims
funding by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10, which will enable us to increase
the number of Independent Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Advisors by 300 to over
1,000 – a 43% increase by 2024/5.</li></ul><p>As far as possible, we have provided
the requested data in Tables 1-3. Please note that each table contains data extracted
from different administrative systems, and for different operational purposes. Whilst
every effort has been made to answer the question and keep the data similar it is
important to note that the data presented is complementary, rather than directly comparable.
Below is a summary of each table and its contents, including a final Annex table (Table
A1) which specifies how offences for rape and serious sexual assault have been captured.</p><p>
</p><p><strong>Table 1 – Volume of defendants proceeded against for rape or ‘serious’
sexual assault offences, year ending June 2019 to year ending June 2023, England and
Wales</strong></p><p>The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publish the data set out in Table
1 in <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-june-2023"
target="_blank"><em>Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2023</em></a><em>,
</em>in the<em> Outcomes by Offence data tool </em>(last updated 18 January 2024).</p><p>The
MoJ tool contains data on the volume of convictions, but it is advised these are not
used to calculate conviction rate (the number of convictions as a proportion of the
number of prosecutions). This is due to the Court Proceedings Database counting two
separate records at two separate stages (one for prosecution, one for conviction).
An individual may appear at each court in separate years, or for a different principal
offence at different stages. As a result, this rate is not an accurate measure of
the proportion of prosecutions that result in a conviction and we recommend table
3 for that purpose.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Table 2 – Rape and ‘serious’ sexual offences
(RASSO) recorded by the police that were not assigned a charge outcome, as a proportion
of all RASSO cases closed each year, year ending June 2019 to year ending June 2023,
England and Wales</strong></p><p>The Home Office (HO) publish the data set out in
Table 2 in the quarterly publication <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables"
target="_blank"><em>Open Data Tables</em></a><em>, </em>in the<em> Outcomes Open Data</em>
files (last updated on 25 January 2024). It is important to note that the Home Office
do not hold data on prosecutions, but publish data on <em>recorded</em> cases that
do not receive a charge outcome, presented in Table 2.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Table
2b – Number of reported incidents of rape (excluding offences recorded by the police)
and cancelled rape offences, year ending March 2019 to year ending March 2023, England
and Wales</strong></p><p>Since April 2015, the police have been expected to record
all allegations of rape that are reported to them as soon as they are received, unless
they are immediately recorded as a confirmed crime. These are recorded under the reported
incidents classification. Reported incidents of rape are then either confirmed as
a crime and re-classified accordingly (as recorded offences) or are retained in the
police data as an incident. Table 2b shows a total of reported incidents that do not
go on to be recorded as a crime, and cancelled rape offences. An incident does not
go on to be recorded as a crime if the victim or third party reporting the incident
cannot confirm it or cannot be traced, if credible evidence to the contrary exists,
or if it is transferred to another police force. These data are published here: <a
href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/652eaab16b6fbf000db75843/prc-rape-incidents-2016-2023.ods"
target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/652eaab16b6fbf000db75843/prc-rape-incidents-2016-2023.ods)</a>.
Rape allegations are ‘cancelled’ when there is additional information to confirm the
offence did not take place or where the entry is made in error (such as a duplicate
of an existing allegation). Home Office can be contacted directly for further comment
on these data.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Table 3 – Conviction rate for suspects with a
rape flagged offence, year ending June 2019 to year ending June 2023, England and
Wales</strong></p><p>The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) publish the data set out
in Table 3 in <a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/cps-quarterly-data-summaries"
target="_blank"><em>CPS quarterly data summaries</em></a> (last updated on 18 January
2024). Prosecution crime type data tables were used to extract conviction rates for
rape flagged cases. Due to the nature of CPS systems, the conviction rate based on
rape flags will include cases where the eventual outcome is different to the flagged
offence of rape.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Table A1: Definition of rape and 'serious'
sexual assault by organisation (MoJ, Home Office, Crown Prosecution Service)</strong></p><p>This
table sets out how rape and ‘serious’ sexual assault offences have been selected for
each of the tables. The most substantial difference is between CPS and MoJ/Home Office
data, as the CPS rely on the use of flags and do not record offences by detailed offence
code in the same way as the MoJ/Home Office (meaning detailed offences would need
to be extracted manually, and are not published). Home Office and MoJ offences broadly
correspond but, due to differences in recording practices and operational uses some
of the offences follow different description conventions.</p>
|
|