Oral Answers to Questions

Ruth Cadbury Excerpts

Thursday 26th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kate Osborne (Jarrow) (Lab)]

2. What steps she is taking to increase the number of prosecutions relating to violence against women and girls.

[Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)]

3. What steps she is taking to increase the number of prosecutions relating to violence against women and girls.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

11. What steps she is taking to increase the number of prosecutions relating to violence against women and girls.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Attorney General]

I know that the Home Office is looking very closely at the issue of spiking. There will be movement on this because we take it very seriously, and we are very concerned about the increasing number of incidents relating to the spiking of victims as a way of attacking and sexually assaulting them. In the data we are beginning to see on how the system is responding—whether that is the number of referrals the police are making to the CPS, the number of charges that the CPS is passing on to trial and for prosecution, or the actual conviction rate—we are seeing improvements. We want to go further, of course, but we are seeing early signs of improvement.

[Ruth Cadbury]

The Attorney General rightly talked about a whole-system approach, but over the past year I have seen an increasing number of extremely concerning cases involving domestic violence in which, specifically, the CPS, the probation service, the courts and the police all seem to be operating in silos when trying to protect women from abusive ex-partners who continue to abuse and harass them. What is the Attorney General doing to ensure that the various parts of the criminal justice system work together to increase prosecutions and protect these women?

[The Attorney General]

The hon. Member is absolutely right that a whole-system approach is required. That is why the end-to-end rape review was announced last year and we have seen updates on how particularly the CPS is doing in relation to its responsibilities. The CPS recently published a rape strategy and the update to that, which sets out the improvements it has continued to see in every aspect of how it is managing rape prosecutions: better collaboration, as I mentioned; supporting more specialist units; and ensuring more support is given to victims. But I would just gently say that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, which I was proud to support as a great initiative by this Government, set out provisions to increase the sentences to be served by rapists and others convicted of sexual assault and I am only sorry that Labour voted against those measures.