Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that police forces are correctly storing rape kits provided by victims to ensure they can be used as evidence.

We expect every report of rape to be treated seriously from the point of disclosure, every victim to be treated with dignity and every investigation to be conducted thoroughly and professionally.

The Forensic Science Regulator has provided guidance on the retention and storage of forensic samples through the existing Codes of Practice and Conduct since 2011. This will continue in the Regulator’s new statutory Code of Practice which comes into force this October.

In addition, in 2021 the Home Office-funded Forensic Capability Network published guidance for policing on the Retention, Storage and Destruction of Materials.