Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he has made an assessment of the potential merits of including (a) the South West or (b) the Avon and Somerset authority in the specialist rape courts pilot.

On 16 June 2022, we announced the Specialist Sexual Violence Support in the Crown Court project at three locations: Leeds, Newcastle, and Snaresbrook in London.

This project is ongoing and we are still in the process of implementing measures, such as trauma informed training for staff, to improve victim experience at the court stage. We will continue to monitor progress against the two aims before making decisions on further rollout, whilst continuing to work closely with the police, Crown Prosecution Service and judiciary so that learnings from the project contribute to ongoing national Crown Court recovery efforts, and bring swifter justice for rape victims.