Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 26
26
Accepted
Paragraph: 150
Rape victims fear accessing mental health support due to disclosure concerns.
Conclusion
We were particularly concerned to hear that victims and survivors of rape may feel they need to—or are advised to—put off accessing mental health support as they fear that their counselling or therapy notes and records could be disclosed to the defence or undermine their case in some way. This is unacceptable given the traumatic impact of rape.
Government Response Summary
The CPS published Pre-trial Therapy Fundamental Principles in February 2022 and updated its pre-trial therapy guidance in May 2022, following a public consultation and review of the Attorney General's Disclosure Guidelines, to address concerns about therapy notes disclosure.
Paragraph Reference:
150
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
In October 2020 the CPS completed a public consultation exercise on draft pre-trial therapy guidance. In February 2022, the CPS published the Pre-trial Therapy Fundamental Principles which confirmed its commitment to a number of fundamental principles not impacted by the AGO review. These covered the prioritisation to be given to victim health and wellbeing, the need for practitioners to comply with data protection legislation and guidelines when handling victim’s personal material, and the limited circumstances when the content of therapy notes will be disclosed to the defence in criminal proceedings. Publication of the finalised guidelines was delayed in order to allow the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) to complete its annual review of its Disclosure Guidelines as the principles are directly relevant to pre-trial therapy, specifically in relation to when the prosecution team has a duty to obtain therapy notes as part of a criminal investigation. The Attorney General’s Disclosure guidelines were published on 26 May and CPS published its updated pre-trial therapy guidance at the same time.