Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, how many rape cases have been awaiting a decision for more than 3 years broken down by Crown Prosecution Service region.

The CPS is committed to increasing the number of rape cases brought to court each year, and is working closely with other criminal justice partners to ensure that access to justice is not delayed.

The CPS continues to deliver the RASSO National Operating Model (NOM) developed in consultation with stakeholders to ensure a consistently high standard of decision making in rape cases. A key component of model is the offer of early advice (EA) to police to strengthen collaboration and help build the strongest cases from the outset by enabling police to seek advice from a prosecutor during the early stages of a case.

This change means that more cases are coming to the CPS earlier than before, impacting their data on timeliness. The enhanced EA offer was trialled first in the CPS pathfinder Areas London, West Midlands, South West and North East. The South East ran an EA pilot alongside these pathfinders.

The below table provides the number of rape-flagged cases awaiting a decision from the CPS that were first submitted to the CPS three or more years ago, by CPS Area as of the 25th of February 2026. These will include cases which are under further investigation by the police, and cases which have been subject to one or more legal reviews in the past but have not yet been subject to a final charging decision:

Whilst there are 46 cases which have not had a final legal decision after three or more years, there are no RASSO cases that have been awaiting a legal review for three or more years following initial submission or subsequent investigation by the police.