Violence against women campaigners have accused ministers of being too quick to celebrate increased rape convictions while overall reporting rates remain low.
The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, said on Monday that the government was on course to exceed a target to reverse low conviction rates for rape by the end of this parliament.
He said “significant progress” had been made since the government’s 2020 end-to-end rape review, which revealed that the number of reported cases in England and Wales resulting in a prosecution had declined since 2016.
The Home Office and Ministry of Justice’s progress report acknowledged that there was more work to be done, but said it had already met two of the three ambitions set out in the rape review ahead of schedule, including restoring the number of police referrals and cases reaching court to 2016 levels. The third ambition, to increase charges, is on track to be exceeded before the end of this parliament, in 2024, the report stated.
Campaigners said Chalk’s claims were premature and misleading. Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), said: “While we have seen some progress, the government have been too quick to claim that they’ve tangibly changed the justice system for rape survivors. We’re barely off the starting blocks, but we now have a roadmap which is going to need a lot of support to realise its ambitions.
“It still remains the case that the vast majority of rape survivors don’t report to the police, and the majority who do will leave the system altogether due to the barriers to justice they find themselves up against.”
The progress report shows that the number of adult rape cases referred by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service is up by 41% on the 2016 quarterly average, from 766 cases to 1,079 cases in the year to December. In the year to March last year, 605 cases made it to crown court – 9% above the government target.
However, the number of charges for adult rape is still 12% below the 2016 quarterly average (538), and CPS charges lag 12% below the target of 538, at 472. EVAW said it was concerned by the way data had been interpreted and presented.
On Monday, the Home Office is also announcing that all rape prosecutors and 43 police forces across England and Wales will begin implementing a new evidence-based approach to dealing with rape and other serious sexual offences.
Known as Operation Soteria, which has been piloted in 19 forces, this will push police to conduct thorough investigations that focus on the suspect and the rights and needs of victims.
The Home Office said there were early signs of improvement in the police forces and CPS areas participating in the programme, with data suggesting more victims are reporting rape and sexual offences to the police.
EVAW noted that Operation Soteria is “one of the most promising outcomes of the government’s end-to-end rape review”, but said it needed more independent academic oversight than is envisaged, as well as adequate funding to transform the prevailing culture within policing.
Other changes include 2,000 extra police investigators specially trained in rape and sexual offences by April 2024, while new recruits will be required to undertake rape and sexual offences training. Victims will also be given the option to hear their attacker being sentenced away from a courtroom to avoid seeing them face-to-face.
The National Police Chiefs’ lead for rape and adult sexual offences, Sarah Crew, chief constable of Avon and Somerset police, said reports from the Soteria pilot had “made for difficult reading”, but that this was an essential step in dealing with “one of the most complex and challenging crimes the criminal justice system deals with”.
She compared the introduction of the National Operating Model to “the quantum leap forward that happened in police professionalism after the Yorkshire Ripper case in the 1980s”.
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, and Steve Reed, the shadow justice secretary, said: “After 13 years, the Conservatives have broken the criminal justice system leaving survivors traumatised and rapists to go unpunished.
“On their watch, rape charges have plummeted while reported rapes soar. Trials are delayed for years and 70% of survivors drop out of the system all together.
“The next Labour government will introduce rape courts and specialist rape investigation units in every police force. That’s how we will speed up justice and punish rapists.”
