‘Lack of progress’ on rape condemned as government ‘shamefully silent’ on minority victims
Justice secretary Dominic Raab said rape convictions are up two thirds in last year but campaigners and survivors say it’s ‘nowhere near’ targets
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Campaigners have condemned a lack of progress in tackling rape after the government published its one year review.
Twelve months ago the government apologised to rape victims over the low number of prosecutions, while committing to return to at least pre-2016 levels.
On Thursday secretary of state for justice Dominic Raab provided an update on progress and announced plans to trial enhanced specialist sexual violence at three major courts.
But Andrea Simon, director of End Violence Against Women Coalition, told The Independent the report fails to demonstrate much has changed for rape survivors.
“Despite any positive spin the government put on creeping prosecution rates, the reality is that in 2016 to 17 the volume of completed rape prosecutions was 5,190 and in 2020 to 21 this stood at just 1,557, so we are nowhere near on track to meet government targets in this area,” she said.
“What has become further apparent in the last year is the extreme scale of the challenge we face in fixing this broken justice system’s response to rape.”
Ms Simon said it is impossible to declare progress has been made on addressing “the poor response” to rape until there is analysis of how the criminal justice system responds to some of the most marginalised survivors.
That includes Black and minority women, survivors with disabilities and other intersecting protected characteristics, she said, adding the report is “shamefully silent on this issue”.
Rape still has the lowest charging levels of all types of crime – with Home Office data showing only 1.3 per cent of 67,125 rape offences recorded by police in 2021 resulted in a prosecution.
Emily Hunt, who alleges she was raped in May 2015, told The Independent: “Police referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have gone up this year by more than expected.
“The CPS is charging in more rape cases, and the number of convictions have gone up. But because rape cases take a long time to go through the system, it is too early in the year to analyse the data.”
The 42-year-old, an independent adviser to the government on the rape review, said while things are changing, they are not changing as fast as she should like, adding: “There is progress but it is not enough”.
Ms Hunt said: “We have a victim-blaming issue. You don’t want to imagine the victim has been raped without them doing something to cause it because otherwise, it could happen to you.
“People try to protect themselves from something quite scary. To turn it into: ‘This is not something which happens to people like me’.
“More needs to be done from the government and from society and from all parts of the criminal justice system.”
Ms Hunt claims she was treated badly by the police when she came forward to allege she had been raped.
The campaigner, whose book on sexual violence called We Need To Talk is coming out early next year, said she suffered victim-blaming and shaming from the police.
In tandem with the rape review progress report, the government also unveiled an additional £6.6m per annum in this Spending Review period for services which help sexual violence and domestic abuse survivors.
A pilot of three specialist rape courts in England was also announced by the government to address low conviction rates – with the courts to be established in Snaresbrook in London, Leeds and Newcastle.
Mr Raab said: “Rape convictions are up two-thirds over the last year and cases are being completed five weeks quicker.
“But we are restless to go further, and these pilots will focus on improving support for victims, tackling the backlog and reducing delays.
“We’re also rolling out pre-recorded evidence faster, recruiting 1,000 sexual violence advisors, developing a 24/7 helpline and improving collaboration between police and prosecutors to ensure victims get the justice they deserve.”