Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when findings on the police and CPS response to prosecuting rape offences from the first phase of Project Soteria, which was announced in the cross-Government end-to-end rape review published in June 2021, will be made public.

Operation Soteria is a joint police-Crown Prosecution Service programme designed to drive improvements in the handling of rape cases, with an overarching aim to build a new national operating model for the investigation of rape and serious sexual assault.

The Home Office is providing funding for five police forces – Avon and Somerset, the Metropolitan Police Service, Durham, West Midlands and South Wales - to participating in intensive academic research, and the resulting recommendations, tools and techniques are embedded in each force.

Research has concluded in Avon and Somerset and the Metropolitan Police Service and recently commenced in Durham.

Findings from the research are shared with police and prosecutors nationally as soon as they are available, including through the National Rape and Sexual Offences Learning Network events. The most recent national learning event took place on the 11 January and outlined findings from research in Avon and Somerset and the Metropolitan Police Service. This event was attended by close to 300 practitioners, with 39 forces represented.

In addition, progress updates on Operation Soteria form part of the Government’s regular rape review progress updates, the first of which was published on 9 December 2021.