Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to reform the criminal justice system to help tackle violence against women and girls.

In 2021, HMG published the VAWG Strategy and the End-to-End Rape Review, in which the Government committed to more than doubling the number of adult rape cases reaching court. The number of people convicted of an adult rape offence went up by 65 percent over the past year (from 323 in the year to June 2021 to 532 in the year to June 2022).

As part of this we are rolling out Operation Soteria, a joint police and CPS programme to make investigations suspect-focussed rather than focussed on victim credibility. This has begun operating across nineteen police forces, with a national rollout ready from June 2023.

We are also increasing the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Abuse Advisors to over 1,000 by 2024/25.