Rape and Serious Sexual Offences: Jury Directions

Baroness Sugg Excerpts

Monday 9th November 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

My noble friend is clearly right that if the experience of being a victim and giving evidence in these cases is so traumatising or retraumatising, one can understand—particularly, as the right reverend Prelate said, in the context of long delays—why victims would find that a really serious problem. As I have said, that leads to us not having the track record that we would wish for in prosecuting these cases. The specific initiative that my noble friend refers to is a civil society initiative, and I welcome civil society initiatives such as that as part of an ongoing social campaign to change this question of rape.

[Baroness Sugg (Con)]

My Lords, the Prime Minister’s comments on Friday:

“We need to do more to support victims of sexual assault and rape, and we will do that”


have been broadly welcomed by survivors but have also raised expectations of swift action. What concrete steps are the Government going to take to provide that support?

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness and pay tribute to her for her own work in this area. On what we are doing to support rape victims, we are introducing independent legal advisers for victims of adult rape this year, with £6 million of initial funding over the next two years. We are introducing a package of crucial legislative reform to protect victims, which I have already talked about, and we are delivering on our commitment to introduce a specialist rape and serious sexual offences court, backed by £23 million of funding. That is an extremely important initiative—and I see the noble Baroness nodding in agreement. The way in which those courts are rolled out—and, as she knows, we are rolling them out— will, we hope, make a big difference.

Finally, we are establishing a new rape justice taskforce, chaired by the Lord Chancellor and bringing together leaders from across the criminal justice system, directly to tackle the rising rate of postponed rape trials and confront the rape myths that cause victims to withdraw from their own cases. I hope that that full answer gives the noble Baroness the reassurance that she seeks.