Oral Answers to Questions

Will Stone Excerpts

Thursday 14th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Coombes (West Bromwich) (Lab)]

1. What steps she is taking to help increase prosecution rates for cases in relation to violence against women and girls.

[Will Stone (Swindon North) (Lab)]

5. What steps she is taking to help increase prosecution rates for cases in relation to violence against women and girls.

[The Solicitor General (Sarah Sackman)]

This Government are committed to halving violence against women and girls in the next decade. We are not only fixing the foundations of our economy, but rebuilding trust in our criminal justice system, with an additional £49 million in the Budget for the Crown Prosecution Service. This will mean additional specialists in rape and serious sexual offences, boosting investigators to tackle those awful offences.

[The Solicitor General]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that very important point, and for the work she is doing in this area. For too long, victims of domestic abuse across the country have been let down, but this week, we have welcomed a new domestic abuse joint justice plan between police and prosecutors. That plan will see them working more closely together to support victims, in order to deliver swifter investigation and justice for all.

[Will Stone]

Prosecutions and convictions for domestic abuse plummeted over the last eight years under the previous Government. Additionally, the time taken to charge domestic abuse cases has increased dramatically. Given the alarming rise in delays, what measures is the Solicitor General implementing to expedite those processes and ensure timely justice for victims?

[The Solicitor General]

My hon. Friend raises a powerful point. He is right that between 2016-17 and 2023-24 the number of domestic abuse flagged cases received from the police by the CPS dropped by nearly 36%. We are beginning to see a rebound in those figures, but much more needs to be done. We need a whole-system approach to fix the system, and our domestic abuse joint justice plan will ensure that the CPS and police work more closely together to address those delays from the very outset of a case.