Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Attorney General's oral contribution of 27 October 2016, Official Report, column 410, whether he plans to review guidance given to judges on what they may say to juries with regard to admissibility of a complainant's sexual history.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The Attorney General and the previous Justice Secretary committed to look at how the law on the admissibility of complainants’ sexual history is operating in practice. MoJ keep all areas of criminal justice procedure under ongoing review.
Guidance with regard to admissibility of evidence is a matter that falls to the judiciary. Judicial training in England and Wales, is also the statutory responsibility of the Lord Chief Justice, and this is exercised through the Judicial College. Further advice to Crown Court judges on jury directions can be found in the Crown Court Compendium which is a Judicial College publication and is publicly available at https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/publications/crown-court-bench-book-directing-the-jury-2/
This includes advice on the directions a judge may give to a jury to counter the risk of stereotypes and assumptions about sexual behaviour and reactions to non-consensual sexual conduct.