Team Lopez – The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Dominic Raab MP, has launched the 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line which offers free and confidential emotional support to all victims and survivors of rape and sexual abuse over the age of 16.

The 24/7 emotional support and listening service will provide victims and survivors who have experienced any form of sexual violence at any point in their life with access to specially trained advisers via telephone and webchat, with additional resources available online. Having access to help at any hour of the night or day will mean that no survivor is ever left without somewhere to turn. Anyone who contacts the service will be listened to, believed, and supported to make their own choices about what they would like to do next.

Where appropriate the service will point them to specialist support such as Independent Sexual Violence Advisers, Sexual Assault Referral Centre and local Rape Support Centres. The government knows that having access to support means that survivors are much more likely to feel believed and are less likely to suffer long-lasting trauma. Victims who speak to an Independent Sexual Violence Adviser are 49 percent less likely to withdraw from the criminal justice process. The more support a survivor receives the more perpetrators we will be able to bring before the courts.

The Ministry of Justice has worked in collaboration with its delivery partner, Rape Crisis England and Wales, who are bringing over 30 years’ experience running specialist helplines and will be operating this new service.

The support line is a key part of the government’s plan to transform outcomes for victims and survivors of rape and sexual violence. In June 2021, the government published the cross-system Rape Review Report and Action Plan and this is being delivered by:

• More than quadrupling funding for victim support to £192 million by 2024/25;
• Increasing the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Abuse Advisors to over 1,000 by 2024/45;
• Completing the rollout of pre-recorded cross-examination for victims of sexual and modern slavery offences in all Crown Courts in England and Wales in September;
• Working with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to roll out a new investigatory model for rape, which focuses on the suspect’s rather than the victim’s behaviour, called Operation Soteria. This has begun operating across nineteen police forces, with a full national rollout ready from June 2023.

We are starting to see progress – rape convictions in 2021 were up by two thirds compared to the year before, and custodial sentences for this crime have increased by nearly two years in the latest year. But there is much more to do – and ensuring that all victims and survivors of rape and sexual violence have access to quality support, appropriate to their needs, when they need it is a key part of the work the government are doing to tackle rape and serious sexual assault. The 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line is available via telephone on: 0808 500 2222 and online at: 247sexualabusesupport.org.uk

The government has also published its latest progress report on the implementation of the Rape Review Action Plan and a series of user-friendly guides on gov.uk for victims of rape and sexual assault, to enable victims to better understand what they can expect as their case progresses through the justice system.

The progress report demonstrates that the government is delivering on its commitments and has a clear plan to protect victims and improve the justice system to minimise long-lasting trauma and ensure that more offenders are brought to justice. 

Rape Review Progress Report: Key Findings

Eighteen months on from the publication of the Rape Review, the government has published its latest six-monthly update which demonstrates the progress made on implementation of the Rape Review Action Plan since June.

The report shows that the actions the government has taken are delivering on its commitments to increase rape prosecutions. Compared to the 2019 quarterly average, adult rape police referrals in Q2 this year (April to June 2022) were up 95%, CPS charges were up 65% and Crown Court receipts were up 91%. This means we are on track to meet the ambition to more than double the number of adult rape cases reaching court by the end of this parliament. The number of adult rape convictions has also increased by 65% (from June 2021- June 2022).

It is important that these changes and improvements are effectively communicated both to boost confidence in the criminal justice system and to encourage more victims to come forward to access the support they need. 

Action to Improve Victim Support

Over the last six months, the government has taken substantive steps to improve victims’ experiences of the criminal justice system, recognising this is key to increasing prosecutions and to ultimately ensuring victims are believed and supported from day one.

Since the Rape Review was published, the government:

• Successfully launched the 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line which will mean all victims and survivors have access to support whenever they need it;
• Expanded Operation Soteria (a joint police and CPS programme to make investigations suspect focussed rather than focussed on victim credibility) to a further 14 police forces;
• Rolled out Section 28 pre-recorded cross examination for victims of sexual offences to all Crown Courts - allowing eligible victims to pre-record their cross examination and avoid the glare of a live trial;
• Announced enhanced specialist sexual violence support in three Crown Court locations - Leeds, Newcastle and Snaresbrook in London, which includes improving facilities and technology at court, ensuring strong on-site support, improving communication with victims and better training;
• Passed the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act to ensure that complainants are only asked for their phone where necessary, proportionate and as part of a reasonable line of enquiry to put the privacy of the victim at the centre of any request.

And the government is more than quadrupling victims funding to £192 million by 2024/25, up from £41 million under Labour in 2009/10. The increased funding will allow the government to fund more than 1,000 Independent Sexual Violence Advisors and Independent Domestic Violence Advisors by 2024/25 to provide a single point of contact and support for victims, and the government has increased funding to Police and Crime Commissioners for services supporting victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse.

The government is committed to continue going further and faster across its action plan to ensure that we remain on track to meet the ambitious targets set out in the Rape Review Action Plan.