Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate she has made of the longest projected length of time between charge and trial in any single case of rape which has yet to be heard in court.

The Ministry of Justice does not carry out projections for length of time between charge and trial for specific offences.

The Ministry of Justice does publish end-to-end timeliness data each quarter, including for rape. Data is published for the average duration for the process.

Link to publication: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685c1091c07c71e5a870984f/timeliness_tool.xlsx.

The Ministry of Justice commissioned Sir Brian Leveson’s Independent Review of the Criminal Courts to tackle the outstanding caseload and to improve timeliness across the board – including for rape and other sexual offences. We are considering Sir Brian’s recommendations and will respond in due course.