#Statistics

As we kick off 16 Days of Activism, Baroness Newlove reacts to fresh survey findings showing women’s low confidence and satisfaction in the criminal justice system.

The Victims' Commissioner reacts to the latest criminal court statistics, which show "enormous" court backlogs are leaving victims waiting on average 436 days for their case to come to court.

Dame Vera Baird said most worrying was Home Office data showing 30 per cent of victims withdrew reports of rape within three months, suggesting their experience had been so bad and traumatic that they could not go through with the prosecution.

New quarterly Crown Prosecution Service data shows that in the last 12 months just 41 extra suspects were charged compared with the year before.

Victims are losing faith in the criminal justice system according to a new survey of victims, which suggests less than half of victims would report to the police again based on their experience of the justice system.

“Far too few rape cases are resulting in a charge and hundreds of complainants annually are being denied justice," says Dame Vera Baird.

"Things must change and they must change soon." Dame Vera Baird calls latest rape statistics “shameful” and says “we cannot go on like this".

Dame Vera Baird says this "continues the disastrous downward trajectory of CPS charging in rape, which started in 2017 and continues to this day."

Crown Prosecution Service data, issued yesterday, shows a further fall in the number of charges for rape despite police referring more cases to them.