Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many cases of alleged rape under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 were referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) by police in each year since 2009-10; on how many occasions the CPS pressed charges for those cases in each of those years; and what the (a) average, (b) shortest and (c) longest period of time between referral and charging was for cases which (i) did and (ii) did not lead to CPS charges in each of those years.

The table below shows the volume and proportion of charged suspects in cases flagged as rape during each of the last seven available years.

The CPS monitoring of cases involving offences of rape involves the application of a rape ‘flag’ to applicable cases that are recorded on the CPS’ electronic Case Management System (CMS). The CPS definition of rape covers any case where the following offences were considered pre-charge or were subsequently charged:

• Rape: Section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956
• Sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 13: Section 5 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956
• Rape: Section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003
• Rape of a child under 13: Section 5 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003
• Sexual activity with a person with a mental disorder impeding choice: Section 30(3) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003
• An attempt to commit any of the above offences under the Criminal Attempts Act 1981
• Incitement or conspiracy to commit any of the above offences.

No separate record of the shortest or longest time from the initial request from the police to the decision to charge is maintained on the CMS, nor is any record collated showing the average number of days taken when the outcome of the charging decision is not to prosecute or any other outcome.

Rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) investigations can be highly complex in nature and typically involve the review of a large quantity of evidence. In the vast majority of cases suspects are on police bail prior to a charging decision being made by the CPS and where the police seek a charging decision in such circumstances the CPS cannot authorise charges until the Full Code Test set out in the Code is met. The timeliness of a charging decision is determined by two key factors: how quickly the police can complete the necessary enquiries; and how quickly the CPS can then review the evidence provided by the police and finalise the charging decision.

The CPS recognises the distress caused to both complainants and defendants by delays in the charging process and we are committed to improving the timeliness of charging decisions. One of the most significant steps that the CPS has taken in this regard has been to substantially increase the resourcing allocated to the specialist RASSO units around the country which prosecute these cases. Between July 2015 and May 2017 the number of RASSO prosecutors available to make charging decisions rose from 138 to 197. This increased resourcing has contributed to an improvement in the timeliness of charging decisions. The number of RASSO cases awaiting CPS charging advice for between 28 days and 3 months fell by over 46% between March 2016 and March 2017 from 489 to 263 cases. Latest provisional data for July indicates the numbers have fallen still further to less than 130.

The CPS is committed to achieving further improvements in timeliness and in May 2017 the RASSO Service Standards were launched. These Standards set out best practice for the management of pre-charge RASSO bail cases between CPS areas and their local police partners. The Standards provide a commitment on the part of the CPS to provide a review of a case within 28 days of submission from the police and sets out an escalation procedure for police colleagues to follow when this target is not met. The Standards also require CPS staff to be actively involved in securing updates from investigating officers where there are significant delays in the police investigation of RASSO cases.