Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2022 to Question 141201, on Rape: Criminal Proceedings, how many rape prosecutions were stopped post-charge because a victim has withdrawn in each police force area or local justice area in each of the last five years.

Information on how many rape prosecutions were stopped post-charge specifically because a victim has withdrawn cannot be identified separately to other outcomes where proceedings were discontinued in data held centrally. The precise information on the reason proceedings were discontinued may be held on court records, but to be able to identify cases where this was due to victim withdrawal would require examining individual court transcripts which would be of disproportionate cost.