Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of (1) rapes, and (2) serious sexual assaults, for which charges are unable to be brought due to the one year time limit from the commission of the offence in the Sexual Offences Act 1956.

Where conduct amounting to rape or another serious sexual offence is alleged to have taken place before 1 May 2004, when the Sexual Offences Act 1956 was repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003, a prosecution could be brought (providing the evidential test is met) under the appropriate provision of the 1956 Act, as that Act made no provision for a time limit for prosecuting those offences. The Act imposed a time limit (of one year) only in respect of the offence in section 6 of unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl aged between 13 and 15. As that offence could apply only to conduct that took place before 1 May 2004, proceedings under it would now be time-barred.