Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 35
35
Accepted
Court backlog remains a significant concern, disproportionately affecting rape and serious sexual offences.
Conclusion
We welcome the £1 billion in the recent Spending Review to increase capacity across the court estate and support recovery from the impact of the pandemic. However, we remain concerned by the size of the backlog, particularly as rape and serious sexual offences are disproportionately affected. (Paragraph 172) 82 Investigation and prosecution of rape
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the backlog concerns, stating its commitment to reduce waiting times, ongoing judicial prioritisation, and launching pilots of enhanced sexual violence support in specific Crown Courts to tackle the backlog.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Government is committed to working with the judiciary, including to overcome challenges the COVID-19 pandemic has created for all users of the justice system, including those for whom access to justice has been delayed. We continue to work to reduce the length of time victims and witnesses wait for their cases to be heard. The allocation and listing of cases are judicial responsibilities. Judges continue to work to prioritise cases involving vulnerable complainants and witnesses (including youth cases), domestic abuse and serious sex cases, as well as custody time limit cases. The judiciary also try to avoid ‘floating’ rape and serious sexual offence cases in the list and instead give them fixed trial dates wherever possible. We are launching pilots of enhanced specialist sexual violence support in the Crown Courts at Leeds, Newcastle, and Snaresbrook in London with the aim of improving the support on offer in court for victims of rape and sexual violence. Working closely with the police, CPS and judiciary, we will also look to use learning from the pilots to identify ways of tackling the backlog and improving case throughput so that cases come to court as quickly as possible. These pilot locations have been selected because they are currently dealing with a higher- than-average number of sex offence cases, higher backlog and have important facilities available including section 28.