Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to introduce specialist rape courts at every Crown Court.

We know that, due to the complexity of the cases, victims of rape can wait longer than victims of other offence types for their case to complete in court. We remain committed to delivering our manifesto commitment, where we set out that we will fast-track rape cases, with specialist courts.

The fast-tracking of rape cases has dependencies with, and impacts on, the rest of the criminal justice system, including the wider Crown Court caseload and the capacity of the rape and serious sexual offences specialist legal workforce. We are carefully considering how best to deliver this. We plan to work closely with the judiciary and will be able to say more in due course.

We are committed to supporting victims of rape throughout their journeys through the criminal justice system, including at court. Section 28 has helped victims and witnesses avoid the stress of giving evidence live at trial and improve their evidence, by enabling cross-examination to take place at a separate hearing in advance of the trial. Trauma informed training has now been rolled out at three Crown Courts, to over 400 staff who come into contact with victims at court. We have also been running a one-year pilot through which victims of rape and other sexual offences can request transcripts of the Crown Court sentencing remarks in their case, for free, which will end in May 2025.

We will go further, and as part of our landmark mission to halve violence against women and girls within a decade, we are also introducing specialist rape and sexual offence teams in every police force and rolling out free, independent legal advocates for victims of adult rape, to advise them at any point from the moment they report.