In 2023, Rape Crisis England & Wales published a report on the impact of Crown Court backlogs on survivors of sexual violence and abuse. We called it Breaking Point because both survivors and the system itself alike could no longer cope under the strain of those delays.
Since Breaking Point was published, the situation has only deteriorated. The number of sexual offence cases waiting to go to the Crown Court now stands at 11,574 – a new record high, and a 44.5% increase from 2022. The number of adult rape cases waiting to go to court today stands at 3,291 – another record high.
Every survivor seeking criminal justice deserves to be treated with dignity, respect, and care. That’s why, the Victims’ Commissioner’s latest report, published today (4th March 2025), is so important. ‘Justice delayed: The impact of the Crown Court backlog on victims, victim services and the criminal justice system’ concludes that the victims of the most serious offences - including rape, murder, robbery and serious physical assaults – are facing years-long waits for their cases to go to trial.
Baroness Newlove’s report details the harmful impact of these agonising delays on victims’ mental health, everyday lives and finances, and confirms our original finding that victims and survivors of rape and sexual assault continue to be appallingly re-traumatised as a result of the Crown Court backlog.
Some of the key findings outlined in the report include:
- The Crown Court system’s backlog means that of those victims and survivors who had been given a trial date, nearly half (48%) had this date changed at some point in their criminal justice journey, and just over a quarter (26%) had the date changed on four or more occasions.
- The Crown Court backlogs and associated delays have a particularly adverse impact on victim-survivors of rape and serious sexual offences, who are often unable to access therapy before trial and suffer particularly high levels of trauma and distress.
- High-quality support helps victims to stay engaged with the criminal justice process, but delays in cases reaching trial mean that services have unsustainable caseloads and have to implement waiting lists to manage this.
- The criminal justice system is at risk of being unable to deliver justice due to the delays in the Crown Court system.
- Victim-survivors’ trust in the criminal justice system has in many cases been irrevocably damaged and led to their disengagement – and in many cases entire withdrawal – from the criminal justice process.
- Poor communication compounds the impact of the Crown Court backlog on victims.
Recommendations
The Victims’ Commissioner’s report makes 19 recommendations with the overarching aims of: improving victim-survivors’ experience of the criminal justice system; making court processes more transparent and efficient; and ensuring services can continue to provide support to victim-survivors enduring delays and awaiting trial.
Rape Crisis England & Wales particularly welcome the following recommendations:
- The restoration of an Independent Courts’ Inspectorate so that the activities and efficacy of the Court Service is subject to rigorous independent scrutiny.
- Emergency funding being made available to victim and survivor support services, to help them manage increased caseloads arising from the backlog.
Ciara Bergman, Rape Crisis England & Wales' CEO, has commented:
Baroness Newlove’s report clearly demonstrates the disastrous impact that Crown Court delays continue to have, not only on victims and survivors of sexual violence and abuse, but also on the specialist services that support them.
Rape Crisis centres provide trauma-informed, free and specialist support to adult and child survivors of all forms of rape and sexual abuse. They listen to survivors, believe them, and provide a safe space in which abuse can be named and understood – often for the first time.
These services are life-changing and in many cases life-saving. They’re also critical to the effective functioning of the criminal justice system: they support survivors to name abuse and commence the process of seeking criminal justice, and they also support those survivors who are seeking criminal justice, to remain within a system which is so profoundly failing them.
But the vital role that centres play requires adequate and sustainable funding. Ever increasing court delays mean victims and survivors often need support for longer periods of time, placing unprecedented and unsustainable demand on already-stretched services.
There are 14,000 survivors currently waiting for a Rape Crisis service, and this unprecedented demand, coupled with a deplorable lack of funding, has left services facing unimaginably difficult choices: some have had to turn survivors away, or close their waiting lists.
No survivor should have to hear that specialist support is not available or that they have to wait years to receive it and the case studies in Baroness Newlove’s report are a stark reminder that it is survivors who ultimately pay the price for systemic failings such as the Crown Court backlog.
We welcome the Victim Commissioners’ report and the acknowledgement that emergency funding is needed for victim services. It is vital that the recommendations made in our Breaking Point, and the reports that have followed since, are seriously considered and that the Government take swift action to resolve these unacceptable delays’.