Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that all police forces in England have a specialist Rape and Serious Sexual Offences unit.

The Government is committed to ensuring that victims and survivors of rape and other sexual offences have their cases investigated in a thorough and timely manner. Every victim should have their case treated seriously from the point of disclosure.

The structuring of individual police forces is an operational matter for Chief Constables.

In June 2021, we published our findings and action plan following an end-to-end review of how the criminal justice system handles rape cases. Among the actions we are taking forward is Operation Soteria, through which we are investing in a programme of work to drive improvements in the handling of rape cases by the police and CPS. Academics working with Policing and CPS partners across five pathfinder forces will make targeted recommendations across a range of themes.