Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of trends in the level of prosecutions for rape; and if he will make a statement.

In June 2021, we published the End-to-End Rape Review Report and Action Plan and we are seeing steady and sustained progress on our ambitions to increase the number of adult rape cases being referred, charged, and received at the Crown Court.

According to the latest data (Jul – Sep 2022) we are on-track to reach our ambition for all three metrics:

• There were 999 total police referrals, up by 117% compared to the quarterly average in 2019 (461), when the Rape Review was commissioned.
• There were 473 CPS charges, up by 94% compared to the 2019 quarterly average (244).
• There were 467 Crown Court receipts, up by 102% compared to the 2019 quarterly average (231).

We have also seen increases in the number of people prosecuted for an adult rape offence, which went up by 15% over the past year (from 1,193 in the year to June 2021 to 1,371 in the year to June 2022) and by 62% compared to the pre-pandemic year (from 848 in the year to June 2019).

We are determined to go further for rape victims so that more victims of rape get the justice they deserve and more rapists are taken off our streets.

We regularly publish updates on the progress we are making through the six-monthly progress reports. We have published three of these reports (in December 2021, June 2022, and December 2022), with the next report due to be published in June 2023. The December 2022 Progress Report was already announced in the House through a written ministerial statement.