Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many alleged (a) rapes or (b) sexual assaults have taken place in hospitals since 1 January 2024.

The Government is committed to tackling the appalling crimes of rape and sexual assault. NHS England has introduced a comprehensive package of measures to improve sexual safety across the NHS.

NHS providers have a mandatory duty to notify the Care Quality Commission of all incidents that affect the health, safety, and welfare of people who use services, including allegations of sexual abuse.

NHS England is investing in improving the collection and analysis of sexual violence data to support organisations to implement policies that reduce incidents of sexual misconduct in the NHS.

Data relating to rape and sexual assault would be held at NHS Trust level. There is no single national dataset in the NHS which captures information on rape and sexual assault for all combinations of staff, patients or visitors to NHS hospitals. Local police forces hold data where there has been a report to the police of rape or sexual assault.

For assaults on staff, the most recent NHS Staff Survey includes questions about staff experiences of sexual misconduct. Results from the 2024 staff survey are expected to be available after March 2025. Results are made available for each NHS Trust, and they are not broken down into hospital and non-hospital settings and do not include patient, carer, or visitor reports.