Labour says ministers have unforgivable lack of urgency over rape victim report

Labour has accused the Government of displaying an “unforgivable lack of urgency” in addressing the needs of rape victims and implementing crucial recommendations made by the Criminal Justice Joint Inspectorate (CJJI).

Analysis by the party shows that several “immediate” recommendations from the CJJI reports have been left unfulfilled.

The CJJI conducted two comprehensive reports, one in July 2021 and the other in February 2022, focusing on the treatment of rape victims by the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

The reports found that the criminal justice system was failing to provide a satisfactory level of service to victims of rape, highlighting serious deficiencies that demanded immediate action.

According to the Labour Party, 18 months on from delivery of those reports, there has been little or no progress on many of the key recommendations, including six where immediate action had been demanded.

These were the collaborative use of bad character applications in rape cases, providing victims with the opportunity to make a personal statement, accurate recording of information on victims’ protected characteristics, establishing specialist rape offence courts, consultation on creating a commissioner for rape and sexual offences, and gathering and publishing data on the use of special measures in rape cases no later than by September 2022.

Shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry said: “At a time when we have a record backlog for rape cases going through our court system, ministers should be doing everything possible to support the victims of those attacks, and help them with the trauma they are facing.

“Instead, their response to the recommendations from the Joint Inspectorate shows an inexplicable lack of focus and an unforgivable lack of urgency.

“The Joint Inspectorate said ‘change is needed now’, but a year and half later, ministers have yet to lift a finger on most of their recommendations.

“The fact is that only a change of Government will deliver the action we need.

“Labour will take immediate steps to put specialist rape courtrooms in every Crown Court in England and Wales, and work tirelessly towards our mission to halve violence against women and girls.”

Home Office minister Sarah Dines said: “Labour have voted against every tougher sentence we have brought in and Keir Starmer has an appalling record of failing rape victims.

“As director of prosecutions at the Crown Prosecution Service, Starmer oversaw a huge drop in the number of sexual offences which were prosecuted and Thornberry criticised his ‘backsliding’.

“Conservative Governments have increased convictions, increased sentences, reformed our justice system and quadrupled funding to better support victims – making sure that the full force of the law is brought to bear to protect women and girls”.

Ms Dines was referencing a critical letter the Labour MP sent in 2012 to then director of public prosecutions Sir Keir and then-attorney general Dominic Grieve amid changes to guidance on specialist barristers and rape prosecutions.

In that letter, she condemned the Government’s decision to “slash the Crown Prosecution Service’s budget by 25% over the course of the Parliament”, which she said had resulted in victims not getting the necessary legal support.