By Lucy Caulkett-
Released statistics by the Criminal Prosecution Service (CPS) for the second quarter of 2019/2020 have revealed worrying drops in the number of cases being reported to the CPS by the police in rape cases in particular.
Allegations of rape, domestic violence, and hate crime, have revealed systematic drops in the number of pre charge cases sent to the CPS by police, according to the quarterly figures released today. Pre-charge decisions are those where CPS has completed making a decision on whether to charge, take no further action, recommend an out of court decision, administratively finalise or ‘other’.
The CPS explains the volume of pre-charge decisions for each different crime type completed by the CPS as being a total of those referred by the police (flagged by the police and CPS at registration) together with any flagged by CPS prosecutors and administrators at a later date, but before the final pre-charge decision is completed
The CPS has attributed the increase in the average charging time is linked to the increasing complexity of offences prosecuted, evidenced by an increase in the average number of consultations per case across several offences.
Pre-charge receipts from the police fell from 63,384 in October-December 2018 to 56,966 in July-September 2019. There were also 479,254 completed prosecutions in the year to September 2019, compared with 494,811 in 2018/19. The CPS says convictions rates have ‘fluctuated’ – 84% in the year to September 2019.
Pre-charge receipts from the police in relation to hate crime were 9,432 in the year up to September 2019, compared to 10,749 in 2018/19. Completed prosecutions have fell from 12,828 in 2018/19 to 12,085 in the year to September 2019. In domestic abuse cases, reports from the police to the CPS for consideration of criminal charges fell from 98,470 in 2018/19 to 86,665 in the year to September 2019 – a 12% fall.
Of all legal pre-charge decisions, the volume charged fell from 67,462 in 2018/19 to 59,685 in the year to September 2019 – an 11.5% fall. Completed prosecutions fell from 78,624 in 2018/19 to 69,756 in the year to September 2019 – an 11.3% drop.
RAPE CASES
In rape cases, the volume of pre-charge receipts from the police fell by 14.4% in the year to September 2019 compared with 22.8% in 2018/19. There is a 1.4% increase in the volume of suspects charged in the year to September 2019 compared with a 37.7% fall in 2018/19. However, completed prosecutions have fallen by 22.8% in the year to September 2019 compared with 32.8% in 2018/19.
Max Hill QC, Director of Public Prosecutions said:
“Performance across the criminal justice system is rightly under the spotlight and this move to quarterly reporting demonstrates our commitment to transparency and accountability to help inform public debate.
“This data highlights several notable long-term trends that impact on the work of CPS. Our cases are growing in complexity, requiring more early engagement with investigators, which means charging decisions are taking longer. Overall, we continue to see a reduction in police referrals and fewer cases are coming to court.
I welcome the Government’s focus on a fair justice system that keeps people safe, and will continue to work with our partners to understand and address these issues.”
There is an ongoing cross-sector, end-to-end review into how rape and sexual violence cases are handled across the criminal justice system. Today’s bulletin includes the latest CPS data on rape-flagged cases.
Max Hill QC added:
“Rape is a devastating crime and our specialist prosecutors will charge whenever the legal test is met. They are highly trained in the challenges of these offences, including rape myths and stereotypes, the impact of the trauma, and how to support vulnerable victims and witnesses.
“I share the deep public concern over the growing gap between the number of rapes being reported, and the number of criminals being convicted of this sickening offence. The CPS is playing an active role in the cross-Government review which is looking right across the system to understand the reasons for this. There is a clear need for end-to-end action to provide better support for victims of this devastating crime, and to bring more offenders to justice.
“In partnership with the police, we have already started work on an ambitious plan to deal with the growing complexity of rape prosecutions and to bring about the improvements we all want to see.”