Issue 272  17th December 2022

Victims are seeing significant improvements in the criminal justice system’s response to rape, a new report has revealed today (15 December 2022). 18 months on from the government’s pivotal Rape Review Action plan – which sought to increase the volumes of trials being heard and ensure more rapists face justice – significant progress is being made according to the latest progress summary. In the most recent data for 2022, the number of cases referred by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was up 95 percent; the volume of cases charged was up by two-thirds; and the number of cases reaching the Crown Court was up 91 percent, compared to 2019 averages.

These figures come a week after the announcement of the first national 24/7 rape and sexual abuse support line – the latest way in which the system is being drastically improved to better serve victims and justice. From this enhanced initial support, victims are also benefitting from better collaboration between the police and prosecutors and less intrusive investigations, along with greater support through the court process. These cross-system improvements mean that while there is much more to be done, the government is on track to meet its Rape Review target – to more than double the number of adult rape cases reaching court by the end of this parliament.

The Ministry of Justice has hailed the ‘significant progress’ that has been made since the government published its landmark rape review action plan – however, the Criminal Bar Association has warned that complainants will continue to wait years for a trial unless prosecutors’ fees are increased...

According to the department, the most recent data for 2022 shows that police referrals are up 95% from the quarterly average in 2019, adult rape cases charged by the Crown Prosecution Service are up 65%, adult rape Crown court receipts are up 91% and adult rape convictions are up 41%. CBA chair Kirsty Brimelow KC said it was encouraging that more cases are reaching court. ‘However, this is a basic and complainants are waiting years for trials. There are insufficient barristers to prosecute the trials and so they are adjourned,’ she said...

Director of public prosecutions Max Hill KC has called for parity in fees since the CBA agreed a £54m deal to suspend its strike over legal aid funding. Discussing the Crown court backlog and CPS resources, Hill told the Commons justice select committee: ‘We don’t ask that prosecutors are paid a penny more than those who defend, but we do say that they must be paid the same. The resolution of the defence graduated fee scheme means that there is now more money in defending than prosecuting, and we need parity there.’

The police sector will receive a nominal funding boost of up to £287 million next year to help victims feel safe and deliver more visible policing, the Home Secretary Suella Braverman has announced. The rise will take total funding for policing up to £17.2 billion and mean police and crime commissioners across the 43 police forces in England and Wales will receive a nominal increase of up to £523 million from government grants and precept income to focus on getting the basics right, such as driving down anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crime which can so easily rip through our communities. The government is giving police crime commissioners in England the ability to raise up to £349 million, through a council tax precept limit of £15.

This provisional settlement will provide £1.1 billion towards national policing priorities, including tackling the scourge of serious violence, county lines, exploitation, abuse, fraud and cyber crime. Funding for counter-terrorism policing will continue to total over £1 billion, including continued funding for armed policing and the Counter Terrorism Operations Centre. We are also giving policing the funding they need to maintain the 20,000 additional police officers recruited as part of the government’s unprecedented campaign to put more police on the streets, ensuring our forces respond to crime effectively and to take a more proactive response in managing crime demand.

The first public parole hearing in UK history is set to go ahead today (12 December 2022) following reforms to increase transparency and improve victims’ experience of the parole system.

Convicted murderer Russell Causley, who killed his wife Carole Packman in 1985, will become the first prisoner to have a public parole hearing after the government lifted the ban on public hearings in July this year. Causley was released from prison by the Parole Board in 2020 after serving 23 years for the murder but was brought back to jail by the Probation Service in November 2021 for breaching his licence conditions. For the first time, victims, the public and media will get to attend a hearing and better understand how decisions over whether to release prisoners are made. The change marks a major step in opening up the parole process, following calls for greater transparency after the subsequently reversed decision to release black cab rapist John Worboys in 2018.

The Crown Prosecution Service has apologised to a solicitor who was told that she could not have a prosecutor’s phone number due to data protection laws. Earlier this week, Natalie Berman, a partner at criminal defence firm Edward Fail, Bradshaw & Waterson, tweeted that she was told by the CPS that defence practitioners can no longer have a prosecutor’s direct number due to the General Data Protection Regulation. Berman questioned how defence solicitors are supposed to engage with the CPS reviewing lawyer, as required by the Criminal Procedure Rules, ‘if we can’t directly call them and they don’t answer emails’.

The CPS told the Gazette that it had apologised for what it called a 'misunderstanding'. A spokesperson said: ‘Early engagement between prosecutors and defence representatives is essential to ensure cases progress effectively and in a timely fashion and prosecutor contact details will be shared with legal representatives. What happened in this instance was a misunderstanding for which we have apologised. We are reminding staff of the process to avoid this happening in the future.’

An independent statutory inquiry will investigate and report on alleged unlawful activity by British Armed Forces during deliberate detention operations in Afghanistan in the period mid-2010 to mid-2013. On 15 December 2022, the Ministry of Defence announced an independent statutory inquiry to investigate and report on alleged unlawful activity by British Armed Forces during deliberate detention operations (DDO) in Afghanistan in the period mid-2010 to mid-2013, and the adequacy of subsequent investigations into such allegations. The inquiry will be chaired by Lord Justice Sir Charles Haddon-Cave, a senior presiding judge for England and Wales, who has previous experience in defence having been appointed by the Secretary of State for Defence to conduct The Nimrod Review; an independent review into broader issues surrounding the loss of the RAF Nimrod MR2 aircraft XV230 in Afghanistan in 2006...