Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many defendants facing allegations of (a) rape and (b) other sexual crimes received a postal requisition to appear at court.

The data presented in the table below shows the number of Defendants dealt with for (a) rape and (b) other sexual crimes cases where they received a postal requisition to appear at the magistrates’ courts, England and Wales, Q1 2014 - Q1 2023 held by HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

To Note:

1) Excludes a small number of cases with identified data quality issues and breaches.

2) Only one offence is counted for each defendant. If there is more than one offence per defendant that complete on the same day, a set of validation rules applies to select one offence only and these relate to the longest duration, seriousness and the lowest sequence number of the offence.

3) Includes cases completed in the magistrates' courts during the specified time period, where no further action is required by the magistrates' courts, as well as those who go on to the Crown Court.