Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, (a) how many specialist rape prosecutors were employed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in each of the 42 CPS areas and (b) how much was spent on those prosecutors in each year since 2009-10.

The CPS currently operates across 14 geographical areas in England and Wales. Dedicated rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) units were not introduced across the geographical areas until 2014. It is not possible for the CPS to provide reliable statistics with respect to prosecutor numbers working within these specialist units prior to 2015. Its records do show the number of prosecutors employed by the CPS in specialist RASSO units as at July 2015, June 2016 and May 2017.

Number of Prosecutors working in specialist RASSO units:

July 2015: 138

June 2016: 185

May 2017: 197

The CPS financial records have only recently split RASSO units into separate cost centres so it is not possible to provide the exact historical spend on RASSO prosecutors for each year. The headcount figures can be translated into an equivalent annual spend based on the average total payroll cost[1] of employing Senior Crown Prosecutors in each year. In 2015 the approximate cost of employing RASSO prosecutors was £9.3 million. In 2016 the approximate cost was £12.8 million and in 2017 it is estimated that the cost will be £13.8 million.

[1] Total payroll costs are inclusive of Employers National Insurance and Pension costs