Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 1
1
Accepted
Unacceptable low volumes of rape charges and prosecutions failing adult victims
Conclusion
Exceptionally low volumes of rape charges and prosecutions are unacceptable. Adult victims and survivors of rape are being failed by our criminal justice system. Rape is undoubtedly a complex, difficult and traumatic crime to investigate and prosecute successfully. However, that complexity does not fully explain the unacceptably low volumes of charging and prosecution, or the long delays faced by victims and survivors and by suspects and defendants. Any action to address those situations must not undermine the accused’s right to a fair trial. (Paragraph 43) The End-to-End Rape Review
Government response summary AI-generated
The government acknowledges the unacceptably low volumes of rape prosecutions, announcing the expansion of Operation Soteria into 14 more police force areas. It commits to continued publication of progress updates and data dashboards, and to writing to the Committee every six months.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted
The Government is grateful to the Home Affairs Select Committee for its consideration of this important issue. We would like to extend gratitude in particular to those witnesses with lived experience of sexual violence that provided evidence to the Committee. The Government recognises that rape and sexual violence are devastating crimes that disproportionately affect women and girls and have a long-lasting impact on victims. That is why in June 2021, we published the End-to-End Rape Review Findings and Action Plan (‘the Rape Review’). In this review we took a hard and honest look at the entire criminal justice system. In too many instances, the system simply had not been working well enough.
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