Baroness Hussein-Ece
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their strategy for dealing with the increase in reported cases of rape shown in the recent Office for National Statistics report on crime in England and Wales.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Bates) (Con)
My Lords, the Government remain committed to tackling sexual violence, as set out fully in our violence against women and girls action plan, updated in March 2014. Supporting victims is at the heart of this approach, which includes giving victims more confidence to report crimes that have gone underreported for far too long. It is encouraging that the police recorded crime figures show more victims are having the confidence to come forward.
Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)
I thank my noble friend for that reply, but does he share my concern that, given there are more reported cases or incidents of sexual violence and rape, the conviction rate is still quite low? It has not improved in the last six or seven years. Can he tell the House what steps the Government will take to ensure that more victims will be encouraged to come forward and have confidence in the criminal justice system, so that they feel that they will be taken seriously and conviction rates will go up?
Lord Bates
I am grateful to my noble friend for raising this vitally important issue. Conviction rates have increased year on year, but rape remains a massively underreported crime. We estimate that there are between 60,000 and 95,000 victims, resulting in only 22,166 reports. This is something that needs to be taken seriously. Rape referrals from the police to the Crown Prosecution Service rose by 8.3% last year. We want to see that figure continue to increase.
Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)
My Lords, given these rather depressing statistics on the incidence of rape, does the Minister believe that the Government are right to continue to pursue their proposed reforms to the taxi and PHV licensing regulations, as proposed in the Deregulation Bill that is coming before the House in Committee this afternoon? Is he aware that taxis and minicabs have been significantly implicated in recent incidences of abuse and rape, for example in Rotherham, and that these reforms are strongly opposed by a number of organisations concerned with women’s safety, such as the Suzy Lamplugh Trust?
Lord Bates
I am not fully aware of the issue that the noble Baroness raises relating to the Deregulation Bill. I will look into it and report to her today.
Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)
My Lords, I suggest that the Minister looks quickly, as the vote on that issue will take place this evening. Perhaps he will choose to vote with us. He said that the number of rapes and sexual attacks is increasing, but in fact the percentage of convictions is going down. It is clear that there are serious delays in acting on information in certain sexual crimes. The National Crime Agency tells us that it has evidence of more than 50,000 people downloading abusive pornographic photographs of children, but it is unable to act on them all and will arrest only those—to date around 600—who place children at physical risk. How can the police tell from downloaded photographic images who is more likely to sexually abuse children unless they interview them? Surely the Government have a responsibility to these children to make it a greater priority.
Lord Bates
My Lords, it is indeed a top priority of this Government to tackle child exploitation, particularly on the internet. That is why Operation Notarise is under way, and it has resulted in convictions. More needs to be done, particularly in engaging with the industry and finding technical solutions to the problems so that we get the evidence to ensure that people are brought to justice for these serious crimes.
Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB)
My Lords, pressure on the police is also seen when they try to deal with human trafficking and young girls caught up in prostitution whose career was started by continuous rape. I wonder what the Minister might like to say about that and about what we might do when we come to the legislation.
Lord Bates
In fact, that was one of the things highlighted in an excellent report into rape carried out by the noble Baroness, Lady Stern, back in 2010. She also made the point that, as well as focusing on increasing the conviction rate, which it is absolutely right to do, we also needed to make sure that we provided enough support and care to the victims of crime. That is one reason why we have ring-fenced £40 million to provide that kind of care to the victims of crime.
Lord Laming (CB)
My Lords, will the Minister assure the House that everything is being done to encourage young people to understand that relationships are best conducted not through the use of power but, rather, through the use of respect for each other?
Lord Bates
The noble Lord is absolutely right in this respect, and education has a key role to play in this. The Home Office has been sponsoring a programme called This is Abuse, which goes through the schools programme. It makes it absolutely clear that young people need to understand that consent is critical to sexual relations and that, when it is absent, a serious crime has been committed.