End-to-end Rape Review

Baroness Helic Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)]

My Lords, I am very happy to accept the two adjectives used by the noble Baroness: “serious” and “committed”. That is exactly what we are. She is right to say that there are resource implications. There are resource implications in what I said about mobile phone data and Section 28, but we want to make sure that the criminal justice system delivers for victims of rape. Obviously, as the Lord Chancellor said yesterday, resources are a necessary part of that.

[Baroness Helic (Con) [V]]

My Lords, I welcome the review and the Government’s commitment on this issue. One of the current problems that rape victims face is severe court backlogs, which cause victims to withdraw before their case is completed. Section 28 would be a valuable tool in combating this problem. Allowing victims to pre-record evidence would help them to stay in the justice process as they could be cross-examined on evidence much earlier. Greater use of this is being piloted, but we have already had pilots for several years. Can my noble friend the Minister tell us when the Government hope to see Section 28 in use across all Crown Courts?

[Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)]

My Lords, I am reluctant to give a date for that because we really have to see how it works out in the courts in which it is being piloted. I have already explained that its use in cases of rape and sexual violence raises different issues from its use in the case of vulnerable witnesses in, for example, domestic abuse and children’s cases. With respect to the delays, we now have more jury courtrooms available than we did before the pandemic. We have Nightingale courts to provide more space as well. As the Lord Chancellor has said, we are running the criminal justice system hot this year; there is no limit to the number of sitting days in the criminal justice system this year.