Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what measures are in place to prevent investigation bias in rape and serious sexual offence cases.

Decisions made during a rape and other serious sexual offence cases, including measures to ensure balance in an investigation are an operational matter for the forces involved.

The Government recognises that the declining numbers of rape and serious sexual offences reaching the courts and charges against offenders has, rightly, been the subject of public scrutiny and concern.

We are taking action to improve outcomes for rape cases through our end-to-end review of the criminal justice response to rape. The review covers from the point of a report to the police through to final outcome in court.

The end-to-end Rape Review will be published shortly.