Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, whether the Secretary of State for Transport has requested her advice on the legality of the dismissals by P&O Ferries in March 2022.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
By convention, whether the Law Officers have been asked to provide advice, and the contents of any such advice, is not disclosed outside Government.
The Convention protects the Law Officers’ ability as chief legal advisers to the Government to give full and frank legal advice, and provides the fullest guarantee that government business will be conducted at all times in light of thorough and candid legal advice.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, whether officials in his Department sought a Ministerial Direction in relation to any aspect of the Internal Market Bill.
Answered by Suella Braverman
There has been no Ministerial Direction requested.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many and what proportion of cases of suspected rape were given a No Further Action as a result of insufficient evidence to proceed in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Rape and serious sexual offences are devastating crimes that have a profound impact on victims, and are some of the most challenging and complex cases that the CPS deals with. Where evidence submitted by the Police is sufficient to bring charges, the CPS will not hesitate to prosecute these horrific crimes.
The CPS maintains a central record to show the overall number of charging decisions where a decision has been made to take No Further Action in cases recorded as rape on the system. The data is shown below broken down by financial year:
In 2015-16, 31.5% of cases of suspected rape were not prosecuted due to evidential issues (2,162 cases)
In 2016-17, 31.2% of cases of suspected rape were not prosecuted due to evidential issues (2,061 cases)
In 2017-18, 29.7% of cases of suspected rape were not prosecuted due to evidential issues (1,786 cases)
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many charges have been brought under the Vagrancy Act 1824 in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The data provided below shows the total number of offences in which a prosecution by the Crown Prosecution Service commenced at magistrates’ courts under the Vagrancy Act 1824 and associated legislation.
Total Charges under the 1824 Vagrancy Act and associated legislation
2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 |
3686 | 3119 | 2660 | 3732 | 3850 | 2958 | 2249 | 1845 | 2146 |
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information Systems
The figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. An individual defendant may be charged with more than one offence.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many cases of alleged rape were referred to the CPS in each year since 2015-16, and in how many of those cases the CPS pressed charges in each of those years; and what the (a) average, (b) shortest and (c) longest period of time between referral and charging was for those cases.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Rape is a serious sexual offence which has a profound impact on victims. The CPS works closely with the Police to ensure that cases are thoroughly investigated before charges are brought because it is in the interests of both victims and perpetrators that cases do not collapse mid-trial.
Cases involving rape and serious sexual offences are some of the most challenging, complex cases that the CPS deals with. They involve very little corroborative evidence in comparison with other cases, and this can result them taking longer to progress through the system. However, the CPS recognises that these offences are devastating crimes that have a significant impact on victims.
The CPS maintains a record of the average number of days taken from referral through to a decision to charge. This data can be seen at annex A. However data is not held on the shortest or longest number of days from submission of a rape case by the police to the CPS through to the date of the decision to charge.
There are a number of reasons for the steady increase in the average number of days and average number of consultations per case since 2015/16. Police are now more regularly encouraged to seek ‘early investigative advice’ to help determine what evidence is required for charge more often. Early investigative advice helps to ensure that cases are thoroughly investigated and the evidence to be brought before the court is strong. As a result, the CPS is more often involved at an earlier stage in proceedings which impacts on the average number of consultations and overall timeliness.
There has also been an increase in the complexity of rape cases investigated by the police. Investigations often involve large amounts of electronic material (social media, emails, text messages, video and photographs) which needs to be reviewed by prosecutors before a charging decision can be made. This also impacts on the average number of consultations and timeliness of the pre-charge stage of the case.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many Rape and Serious Sexual Offences prosecutors have been available to make Crown Prosecution Service charging decisions in each year since 2015.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Rape and serious sexual assault offence (RASSO) cases are among the most sensitive and complex cases prosecuted by the CPS, and they have a profound impact on victims. To address this, CPS has undertaken extensive work over the last decade to ensure that specialist prosecutors are fully equipped to deal with the particular complexities of rape cases.
The vast majority of RASSO cases are handled by specialist prosecutors working in either dedicated Area RASSO units or the dedicated CPS charging service CPS Direct. The first dedicated Area RASSO Units were established in 2014. The number of RASSO unit prosecutors and CPS Direct Prosecutors is displayed at Annex A.
A small number of rape and serious sexual offence cases are dealt with by RASSO trained specialist prosecutors in the Central Casework Divisions (CCDs). It is not possible to provide year on year numbers of RASSO trained specialist prosecutors in the CCDs.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many and what proportion of rape and serious sexual offence cases did not result in CPS charging advice (a) within 28 days, (b) within 2 months, (c) within 3 months, (d) within 4 months, (e) within 5 months, (f) in over 6 months and (g) in over 12 months of being referred to the CPS by the police in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Rape and serious sexual offences are devastating crimes that have a profound impact on victims. Cases involving rape and serious sexual offences are some of the most challenging and complex cases that the CPS deals with. They involve very little corroborative evidence in comparison with other cases which can result in them taking longer to progress through the system. Where evidence submitted by the Police is sufficient to bring charges, the CPS will not hesitate to prosecute. The CPS works closely with the Police to ensure that cases are thoroughly investigated before charges are brought because it is in the interests of both victims and perpetrators that cases do not collapse mid-trial.
The CPS does not maintain a record of the number of days between referral and a non-charging outcome. However, the CPS does maintain a record of the average number of days taken from referral through to a decision to charge, and this data can be found in answer 266848.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of cases of forensic manipulation at Randox that resulted in a conviction being overturned; and in how many of those cases had a custodial sentence already been served.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
There is an ongoing investigation into data manipulation at Randox Testing Services. The Crown Prosecution Service will continue to support this process to ensure that fairness and transparency in the system is maintained.
The Crown Prosecution Service can only comment on cases that it is responsible for prosecuting. For the cases which it prosecutes, the Crown Prosecution Service does not maintain a central record of the number of cases of forensic manipulation at Randox that resulted in a conviction being overturned or a record of how many of those cases involved a custodial sentence. Such information could only be obtained through a manual search of records which would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what estimate his Department has made of the number of prosecutions dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service as a result of data manipulation of forensic toxicology at Randox.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
There is an ongoing investigation into data manipulation at Randox Testing Services. The Crown Prosecution Service will continue to support this process to ensure that fairness and transparency in the system is maintained.
The CPS does not maintain a central record of the number of prosecutions that were dropped as a result of data manipulation of forensic toxicology at Randox. This could only be obtained through a manual search of case records, at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to improve prosecution rates for child exploitation.
Answered by Robert Buckland
Child exploitation can take many forms and include sexual exploitation and wider criminal activity.
Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is a priority for the CPS. Specialist CPS lawyers, who have had bespoke training, continue to work closely with police investigators in order to build stronger cases, which can be both contact and online offending.
Child Sexual Exploitation is often associated with ‘County Lines’ criminal activity. The CPS has published a County Lines typology which provides an overview of the approach to be taken in criminal investigations and prosecutions linked to this type of offending. The typology guides police and prosecutors on evidential matters, as well as how to manage and support victims.