Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced that specialist courts dedicated to handling rape and serious sexual offence cases will be rolled out across every crown court in England and Wales over the next two years, marking the most significant overhaul of the criminal justice system’s approach to sexual violence in a generation.
A system under strain
The reforms come against a backdrop of record backlogs and plummeting prosecution rates that have left victims waiting years for their day in court — if they ever get one at all. Burnham acknowledged that prosecution rates for rape remain “shamefully low” and described the current state of affairs as “not good enough.”
The trigger for the announcement was the remarkable public intervention of Labour MP Charlotte Nichols, who in March waived her automatic right to anonymity to speak in the House of Commons about being raped. Nichols revealed she had waited 1,088 days to go to court, with every day being “agony” and the trauma compounded by her role in public life. Her attacker was acquitted at crown court but subsequently ordered to pay compensation after she won a civil case against him.
Nichols used her platform to criticise the Courts and Tribunals Bill’s plans to limit jury trials, arguing that she had endured “every indignity that our broken criminal justice system could mete out.” Her speech resonated powerfully and is widely credited with galvanising the government into action.
What the reforms entail
Under the plans, each crown court will be equipped with at least one courtroom dedicated to hearing rape and sexual offence cases. Victims will have access to private entrances and private waiting rooms, separating them physically from defendants and reducing the trauma of encountering their alleged abuser in a corridor or waiting area.
Court staff will receive trauma-informed training, and a single point of contact will be assigned to each survivor to guide them through the process. Crucially, from next month trials will be given fixed dates rather than being placed on floating lists — a change Burnham said was designed to “rebalance the scales of justice and put victims first.”
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The measures are expected to cost around £23m and will be funded from the Ministry of Justice budget. They build on an earlier announcement this year that rape victims would be given access to specialist legal advice throughout the criminal justice process.
Rape Crisis England and Wales welcomed the package as a “significant step forward,” with chief executive Ciara Bergman saying the reforms reflected “the urgency of ensuring that courts are fit for purpose and properly meet the needs of victims and survivors, which is crucial to securing justice.”
Why it matters
The specialist courts represent a rare example of cross-party consensus on justice reform. The Conservatives acknowledged that tackling delays to criminal rape trials was “long overdue,” though shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy pressed Labour to commit to scrapping plans to restrict jury trials, arguing that the party should “get courts sitting throughout the year, end the delays and clear the backlog — not undermine our right to a trial by jury.”
Last year, the Salford Survivor Project warned that victims of rape and sexual assault were being “failed by the system” as court backlogs reached a record high. The long delays were having a serious impact on victims’ mental health. One woman who told BBC News she was sexually assaulted by a taxi driver on her 21st birthday dropped her case entirely because of court delays — the case was adjourned multiple times, including when the judge fell ill, and she ultimately decided she “couldn’t let this hurt me further.” Without her testimony, the CPS said the case was dropped for insufficient evidence.
The government’s wider ambition is anchored in Labour’s 2024 manifesto commitment to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. Burnham was clear that prosecution alone would not be enough: “So as well as ensuring victims get justice, we will step up action to prevent these horrific crimes from happening in the first place.”
What happens next
The specialist courts are to be introduced over the next two years, with fixed trial dates beginning from next month. An inquest at Brighton and Hove Coroner’s Court is scheduled to continue in early October. The government will need to work with the Crown Prosecution Service, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, and victims’ organisations to deliver the training and infrastructure changes. The hope is that the dedicated courts, combined with the specialist legal advice already announced, will begin to restore confidence in a system that many victims have abandoned altogether.
Source: BBC News
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