Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, with reference to the Answer of 20 January 2023 to Question 125287 on Rape: Prosecutions, how many (a) completed prosecutions and (b) convictions there were for rape in each quarter from the start of January 2005 to the end of September 2015.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a Case Management System (CMS) which shows the number of defendants where a flag for rape has been added. This flag is applied at the onset of any case referred by the police to the CPS for a charge of rape and remains in place even if the charge is not proceeded with, is amended, or dropped. If a case is referred by the police for a charge other than rape, but subsequently a charge of rape is preferred, the flag is applied at that point.

The tables below show the number of completed prosecutions and convictions in cases where a flag for rape has been added, from 1 April 2006 to the end of September 2015 by quarter. The data provided in the table is in financial quarters.

The CPS’ CMS was introduced during 2004-2005. A national monitoring flag to manage cases where rape offences were referred or later charged was introduced from 1 April 2006. As with any new monitoring system, some variance is expected in the periods immediately following the introduction of a new flagging process.

‘Total completed prosecutions’ refer to the conclusion of a prosecution case against a defendant such as conviction after trial, guilty plea, acquittal, or the prosecution against the defendant being dropped. ‘Convictions’ refer to convictions after trial and guilty pleas.