We are pleased that the Ministry of Justice has this morning announced its plan to undertake a root and branch review of the criminal courts in England & Wales. The previous government’s ‘End-to-End Rape Review’ was not truly end-to-end, failing to consider the issues faced by survivors once charges are filed with courts, and it is imperative that the current government now urgently addresses this area.
Every year, Rape Crisis England & Wales and our centres hear from thousands of survivors about how the justice system has failed – and continues to fail – them. New figures released today reveal a 45% increase in sexual offences cases awaiting trial in the Crown Court, compared with the same quarter in 2022. Whilst it is positive that improvements made under Operation Soteria have led to more sexual offence cases being charged, the Crown Court cannot handle the additional work.
Lengthy court waiting times
On average, sexual offence survivors are waiting a staggering 710 days between reporting an offence and the conclusion of legal proceedings – in many cases far, far longer. Cases are routinely being delayed and rearranged, retraumatising survivors who already face lengthy waits. Today’s figures show a 31% increase in vacated (delayed) sexual offence trials in the last two years.
The Director of Public Prosecutions has rightly made tackling the backlog of rape and sexual offence cases in the Crown Court a priority, and highlighted the devastating impact of delays on survivors – all of which were set out in our 2023 Breaking Point report. But we will not improve the justice system unless we support survivors and fund our services. The Victim’s Commissioner was right – these services are the backbone of our justice system.
Want to understand more about the impact of the Crown Court backlog on survivors?
Our centres have never been more needed, and 14,000 adult and child survivors are on our waitlists. But the recent announcement of a reduction in PCC budgets for victim services, and national insurance increases which charities are not exempt from, will inevitably translate into real terms reductions in funding and support for survivors.
Indeed, our 38 centres across England and Wales are now facing unimaginably difficult choices about how to manage with even less. In a survey of our members, 62% said they will need to reduce the services they can offer to survivors next year, one third said they now need to make redundancies, and, perhaps most troublingly, 43% expected to have to pay for these funding cuts through their charity’s own reserves.
Specialist support essential to ending rape
Specialist Rape Crisis centres are essential if survivors are to have an effective societal response to rape, and a justice system which is fit for purpose. We will never end rape if we cannot hold perpetrators to account, and we cannot hold perpetrators to account if survivors cannot find the words to name what has happened, trust in the systems and professionals designed to support them, or receive support throughout the criminal justice process. Moreover, we know that interventions with perpetrators of all forms of harm are never safe unless parallel support is provided to survivors – not least because half of adult survivors of rape were violated within the context of an intimate relationship.
Our government has set out its ambition to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, and we look forward to working with them to make that a reality. But we cannot help to do that if our services continue to pay the price for systemic failures.