Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of the number of rape victims who withdrew from their cases in each of the last 12 years.

Victims can withdraw from the criminal justice process at any stage and some of this information is published for adult rape as part of our Criminal Justice Delivery Data Dashboard and the associated publications the dashboard data is derived from.

In June 2021, we published the End-to-End Rape Review Report and Action Plan with the aim of more than doubling the number of adult rape cases reaching court by the end of this Parliament.

The volume of adult rape cases going through the system has already significantly increased: there were 440 Crown Court receipts in the second quarter of 2022, up 91% from the quarterly average in 2019. Adult rape convictions have also increased: there were 532 convictions in the year to June 2022, up 65% compared to the year to June 2021.

We are taking strong action to address victim attrition, including rolling out pre-recorded cross examination (Section 28) for victims of sexual and modern slavery offences in all Crown Court locations across England and Wales, more than quadrupling funding for victim support from £41m in 2009/10 to £192m by 2024/25, increasing the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Abuse Advisors to over 1,000 by 2024/25 and in December we launched a single source of 24/7 support for victims of rape and sexual abuse meaning every victim can now access free, confidential emotional support whenever and wherever they need it.