Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that people who are under investigation for rape are monitored to prevent (a) further attacks and (b) evasion of justice.

Individuals who are under investigation for rape may be placed on pre-charge bail when the police consider it necessary and proportionate. Conditions may be attached to this bail and are given with specific reference to factors including to ensure the person does not commit further offences or abscond from police custody. These factors are set out in existing primary legislation. Decisions on whether to bail individuals and which conditions to set against them are operational matters for individual police forces and will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. Where individuals breach their bail conditions, the police have a power to arrest those individuals.

We are delivering actions through the Rape Review to ensure that police investigations are efficient and consider the risks posed by suspects under investigation. This includes supporting delivery of Operation Soteria and funding the policing aspects of the programme which include the dissemination and development of best practice learning to improve the efficiency of investigations.

Furthermore, we are working with partners to improve the capabilities of police officers in relation to issues that are relevant to sexual offences. As part of the Policing Education Qualification Framework, all student police officers will receive training to identify the factors that contribute to the vulnerability of victims and witnesses and respond appropriately.

Through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act we are also strengthening the regime to manage sexual offenders and those that pose a risk of sexual harm but have not been convicted. The police may apply to a court for a Sexual Risk Orders (SRO), which can be applied to any individual who poses a risk of sexual harm in the UK or abroad, even if they have never been convicted.

An SRO can place a range of restrictions on an individual depending on the nature of the case, such as limiting their internet use or preventing travel abroad. Breach of an SRO is a criminal offence punishable by a maximum of 5 years’ imprisonment.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 now specifies that the court should apply the lower civil standard of proof (‘balance of probabilities’), rather than the criminal standard, when determining whether the individual the application is made in respect of has done the act in question.