Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of rape charge rates in England and Wales.

Through the Rape Review, we are making sustained progress on our ambitions to increase the number of referrals to the CPS, CPS charges, and Crown Court receipts for adult rape cases back to 2016 levels. 2016 levels are an ambitious target – convictions in 2016 were 30% higher than in 2010 under Labour.

According to the latest quarter of data we have either exceeded or are on track to exceed each ambition:

o There were 1,079 total police referrals, more than double the 2019 quarterly average of 461 and up by 41% compared to the 2016 quarterly average of 766. (Oct-Dec 2022)

o There were 472 CPS charges, nearly double the 2019 quarterly average of 244, just 12% below the 2016 quarterly average of 538. (Oct-Dec 2022)

o The number of adult rape Crown Court receipts continued to increase in the first quarter of 2023 with 605 Crown Court receipts, exceeding our ambition of 553. (Jan- March 2023)

Crucially we are increasing the number of cases we are bringing to court. Adult rape prosecutions continue to rise, up to 1,710 in 2022, an increase of 4% on 2010 under Labour.