On Thursday 29 June, the Ministry of Justice released its quarterly criminal court statistics for January - March 2023, and data shows that rape and sexual offences in the Crown Court's backlog have reached yet another record high.
Since publishing Breaking Point, our report on the re-traumatisation of rape and sexual abuse survivors in the Crown Court's backlog of cases, it's clear that the system is becoming progressively worse for survivors. Although the general backlog in the Crown Courts is getting marginally smaller, it continues to rise for adult rape and sexual offences. When we published our report in March 2023 the backlog for sexual offences was 7899, this has now gone up to 8741. The latest statistics also reveal that:
- There has been a 29% increase in sexual offences in the backlog compared to this quarter last year.
- From Q1 2023 to Q2 2023 there has been an 8% increase in adult rape cases in the backlog and a 48% increase since Q1 2022.
- From Q1 2020 to Q1 2023, the number of adult rape cases in the backlog has increased by 200%.
- Adult rape cases are taking an average of more than 2 years to complete in court.
Amelia Handy, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, at Rape Crisis England & Wales said:
It’s unacceptable that victims and survivors of some of the most serious and traumatic crimes are waiting the longest for a trial date: they are being failed. Our Breaking Point report demonstrated the immense impact the delays caused by the backlog are having on their mental health and well-being, with many waiting years just for the chance at justice and being left highly traumatised in the process. On top of this, victims and survivors are unable to receive the critical specialist support they deserve and need, with access to support limited to pre-trial therapy, which doesn't enable them to explore the trauma of what happened to them in detail until the court case has been completed.
We urgently need change so that victims and survivors are no longer being harmed by the criminal justice system.
We set out the recommendations for change in our Breaking Point report, including:
- The fast-tracking of sexual offence cases.
- Specialist sexual offence courts where all staff receive trauma-informed training.
- Judge-only trial pilots (because of jury trials being more costly and lengthy).
- Long-term grants for specialist sexual violence and abuse services that support survivors through the criminal justice system.
We are also calling for a chance to the Victims and Prisoners Bill, to Keep Counselling Confidential, and ensure victims and survivors have access to specialist support as and when they need it.