Rape Crisis England and Wales statement on the Leveson Review of the Criminal Courts.
Sir Brian Leveson has today published Part 1 of the landmark Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, commissioned by the Lord Chancellor in December 2024, in response to the backlogs in our Crown Courts in particular.
Our Chief Executive, Ciara Bergman commented:
“We’re encouraged to see, at long last, some radical and wide-reaching recommendations to address the appalling and ever-escalating crisis in the Crown Court system. This said, it remains unclear whether the Government will accept them in full or what the timescales will be for their implementation (likely many years).
In the meantime, thousands of adult and child survivors of sexual violence who’ve already endured the trauma of rape and abuse are currently being retraumatised by the systems that are supposed to protect and help them to seek a criminal justice outcome, if that’s what they want.