Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many complaints the Crown Prosecution Service received on the handling of allegations of rape under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in each year since 2004-05.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
ANSWER: ATTORNEY GENERAL: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of complaints received about the handling of allegations of rape under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.
It does however hold data about the Victim’s Right to Review (VRR) scheme. A VRR arises where the CPS finalises a case with a decision that qualifies under the scheme. Qualifying decisions are where the CPS:
(i) makes the decision not to bring proceedings (i.e. at the pre-charge stage); or
(ii) decides to discontinue (or withdraw in the Magistrates’ Court) all charges
involving the victim, thereby entirely ending all proceedings relating to them;
(iii) offers no evidence in all proceedings relating to the victim; or
(iv) decides to leave all charges in the proceedings to “lie on file”.
The CPS launched the scheme in June 2013.
The table below shows the number of VRR appeals received by the CPS, where the principal offence was identified as a sexual offence, since the Scheme began.
| June 2013 - March 2014 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 |
Total VRR Appeals Received | 143 | 239 | 373 | 453 |
Number of Sexual Offence VRR Appeals Upheld | 27 | 37 | 53 | 24 |
% of Sexual Offences Appeals Upheld | 18.9% | 15.5% | 14.2% | 5.3% |
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many applications were made to extend custody time limits (CTLs) in cases of alleged rape under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 where the defendant was remanded in custody in each year since 2009-10; and on how many occasions the Chief Crown Prosecutor was informed of a failure by the criminal justice system to adhere to CTLs in each of those years.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not collect data on the number of applications made to the courts to extend custody time limits in cases in which rape is alleged. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.
To assist in the effective management of its prosecution functions the CPS maintains Custody Time Limit Failure Log. Data from that log showing the number of failures in rape cases in each year since 2011/12 for which the CPS was primarily responsible, and as a percentage of the total number of prosecutions in the year, is contained in the table below. In one of the CTLs listed, no application was made to extend. In the remainder, an application was made but refused by the court.
Earlier data are not available without incurring disproportionate cost. Data for the years 2009/10 and 2010/11 are not available.
| 2011-2012 | 2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 | 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 |
Prosecutions | 3,864 | 3,692 | 3,891 | 4,536 | 4,643 | 5,190 |
CTL failures | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
% | 0.05% | 0.05% | 0.00% | 0.07% | 0.02% | 0.04% |
This data includes prosecution for rape under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the Sexual Offences Act 1956 where the allegation occurred whilst that legislation was in force.
The Crown Prosecution Service does not collect data on the number of alleged rape cases in which the criminal justice system failed to adhere to custody time limits. There will be cases in which a custody time limit is not extended for reasons that do not involve any criticism of the CPS.
The Crown Prosecution Service monitors every case prosecuted by the CPS which is the subject of a custody time limit to ensure compliance with the regime.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many times (a) victims have withdrawn support for a prosecution of an alleged rape under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 case and (b) the Crown Prosecution Service has decided not to continue with the prosecution of an alleged rape following the withdrawal of such support in each year since 2009-10.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of victims who have withdrawn support for a prosecution or the number of cases the CPS has then subsequently decided not to proceed with. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.
However, while the CPS does not collect data on the number of victims who withdraw support for the prosecution, or cases which do not proceed following the withdrawal of such support, information is available to show the overall number of pre-charge decisions where a decision not to prosecute was made and unsuccessful prosecution outcomes that were flagged as rape. These outcomes can be disaggregated to show the volume and proportion that were due to victim issues, including retraction, where it was inappropriate to compel the victim, non-attendance at trial or where the evidence given did not come up to proof.
The CPS monitoring of cases involving offences of rape involves the application of a rape ‘flag’ to applicable cases that are recorded on the CPS’ electronic Case Management System (CMS). The CPS definition of rape covers any case where the following offences were considered pre-charge or were subsequently charged:
The table below shows the volume and proportion of decisions not to prosecute due to victim issues in cases flagged as rape during each of the last seven available years.
Victim Issues | No Prosecution | Charged | Total | ||||
Volume | % | Volume | % | Volume | % | ||
2009-2010 | 291 | 3.8% | 4,165 | 54.2% | 3,232 | 42.1% | 7,683 |
2010-2011 | 299 | 3.7% | 4,339 | 53.4% | 3,387 | 41.7% | 8,130 |
2011-2012 | 190 | 2.8% | 3,281 | 48.1% | 3,213 | 47.1% | 6,822 |
2012-2013 | 113 | 2.1% | 2,195 | 40.6% | 2,889 | 53.5% | 5,404 |
2013-2014 | 158 | 2.7% | 1,857 | 31.7% | 3,621 | 61.9% | 5,850 |
2014-2015 | 189 | 3.1% | 1,997 | 32.4% | 3,648 | 59.2% | 6,159 |
2015-2016 | 181 | 2.6% | 2,271 | 33.1% | 3,910 | 57.0% | 6,855 |
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System | |||||||
Victim issues include cases where the victim is called as a witness in a trial, but fails to attend court; where the evidence of the victim supports the prosecution case but the victim refuses to be called as a witness, or retracts, or withdraws a complaint; and where the evidence of the victim does not support the prosecution of the defendant, leading to an unsuccessful outcome, but the victim however, has not retracted.
The CPS will shortly be publishing its annual Violence Against Women and Girls Report for 2016-17 which will provide the most up to date assessment of rape flagged prosecutions including the key reasons for unsuccessful prosecutions.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many times (a) the CPS or (b) victims have requested that he reconsider court sentences for rape under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 on the grounds of undue leniency since 2009-10; on how many occasions he referred those cases to the Court of Appeal in each of those years; and on how many occasions the Court of Appeal decided (i) that the sentence was unduly lenient and (ii) to increase the sentence in each year in that period.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The records that the Attorney General’s Office holds reveal the following data in relation to rape offences.
Please note that these figures include referrals for sentences passed for rape offences charged under the 1956 Sexual Offences Act (for offences committed prior to the commencement of the 2003 Act but which were not sentenced until 2009 or afterwards) as well as for rape offences charged under the provisions of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. It is of course likely that a high proportion of the referrals received by my office from the CPS will have been submitted with the full support of the victim.
Year
| Referrals to AGO made by Victim | Referrals to AGO made by CPS | Referred by AG or SG to CoA | Considered ULS by the court | Referrals where sentence increased |
2009
| 0 | 14 | 9 | 6 | 6 |
2010 |
0 |
18 |
8 |
6 |
6 |
2011
|
0 |
13 |
7 |
7 |
7 |
2012
|
4 |
21 |
12 |
11 |
11 |
2013
|
5 |
14 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
2014
|
6 |
14 |
13 |
10 |
10 |
2015
|
6 |
15 |
12 (1 of which was subsequently withdrawn) |
11 |
11 |
2016
|
7 |
23 |
21 (1 of which was subsequently withdrawn |
17 |
17 |
2017
|
5 |
10 |
9 (of which 2 await determination) |
7 |
7 |
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North and Cottingham)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, (a) how many specialist rape prosecutors were employed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in each of the 42 CPS areas and (b) how much was spent on those prosecutors in each year since 2009-10.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The CPS currently operates across 14 geographical areas in England and Wales. Dedicated rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) units were not introduced across the geographical areas until 2014. It is not possible for the CPS to provide reliable statistics with respect to prosecutor numbers working within these specialist units prior to 2015. Its records do show the number of prosecutors employed by the CPS in specialist RASSO units as at July 2015, June 2016 and May 2017.
Number of Prosecutors working in specialist RASSO units:
July 2015: 138
June 2016: 185
May 2017: 197
The CPS financial records have only recently split RASSO units into separate cost centres so it is not possible to provide the exact historical spend on RASSO prosecutors for each year. The headcount figures can be translated into an equivalent annual spend based on the average total payroll cost[1] of employing Senior Crown Prosecutors in each year. In 2015 the approximate cost of employing RASSO prosecutors was £9.3 million. In 2016 the approximate cost was £12.8 million and in 2017 it is estimated that the cost will be £13.8 million.
[1] Total payroll costs are inclusive of Employers National Insurance and Pension costs