Plans for courts hearing rape cases include private entrances, facilities for recording evidence in advance and ways to observe sentencing remotely. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters View image in fullscreen Plans for courts hearing rape cases include private entrances, facilities for recording evidence in advance and ways to observe sentencing remotely. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters Rape and sexual assault Specialist courtrooms to prioritise rape cases in England and Wales Funding boost for facilities and fixed dates for trials designed to encourage more survivors to come forward
Prefer the Guardian on Google Specialist courtrooms prioritising cases of rape and other serious sex offences are to be introduced across England and Wales, with campaigners welcoming the move as potentially transformative.
The changes, designed to encourage more survivors to come forward, will include the provision of private entrances and waiting rooms, and facilities equipped for recording evidence in advance and observing sentencing remotely.
Announcing the move, Andy Burnham said victims of rape and serious sexual offences had felt let down by the justice system for too long, adding that prosecution rates for rape remained “shamefully low”, with many victims waiting years for justice.
“These changes are long overdue and will make a significant difference, but focusing on prosecution alone will not be enough,” the prime minister said.
“So as well as ensuring victims get justice, we will step up action to prevent these horrific crimes from happening in the first place.”
A multimillion-pound cash injection is intended to make sure every crown court in England and Wales has at least one room set up specifically to hear rape and serious sexual offence cases within two years.
Rape and serious sexual offence cases will also be prioritised in courts more widely, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced. Such trials will be given a fixed date, as opposed to being placed on floating lists where they can be moved at short notice and delayed by months.
Among those welcoming the announcement was Labour’s Charlotte Nichols, who told the House of Commons this year she was raped after an event she attended as an MP and waited 1,088 days for her case to get to court.
View image in fullscreen Labour MP Charlotte Nichols, centre, waived her anonymity to tell parliament about her rape and subsequent experience with the courts. Photograph: Parliament Live Nichols said: “Today marks a hugely important milestone, helping to improve the experience of victims and survivors of sexual violence in the court system who are all too often retraumatised by seeking justice.
“I’m proud that substantive, meaningful change has come from waiving my anonymity to speak about my own experiences, and am hugely grateful to the prime minister and lord chancellor for taking forward these measures, as I know the difference they would have made for me and so many of the survivors I have worked with in recent years.”
The MoJ cited Nichols’ “immense strength and bravery” in its announcement.
While welcoming the announcement, there was a warning by the victims commissioner, Claire Waxman, that the crown court backlog of rape and sexual offence cases was now “significantly worse” than when she first called for specialist courts in 2021.
She said: “Tens of thousands more victims are now waiting for their cases to reach trial, and specialist courts alone will not be enough to tackle the sca…