Recommendation 13

Written evidence to our inquiry highlighted concerns about the impact on victims, and particularly the serious impact that the backlog can have on victims’ work, family, and mental health and wellbeing.30 Academics from the Justice in COVID–19 for Sexual Abuse and Violence (JiCSAV) project noted that practitioners could provide examples of cases where victims had withdrawn from the prosecution process because of court delays.31 The FDA union told us that RASSO prosecutions took, on average, over two years to come to trial.32 The Rape and Sexual Assault Counselling Centre (RSACC– based in Darlington and County Durham) said in their evidence that many of the people they work with find the court process as traumatic as the crime itself, and issues caused by the backlog only compound this.33