The shocking decline in convictions shows rape is essentially being decriminalised

For the sake of higher rates of convictions, the Crown Prosecution Service has cut the volume of cases they charge, leaving thousands of rape complainants without justice

The number of prosecutions for rape is down to the lowest level since annual recording began, according to the CPS (Getty/iStock)

Yesterday, the Crown Prosecution Service published its performance statistics in sexual violence cases for the year 2019-20. They make shocking reading.

The number of prosecutions for rape is down to the lowest level since annual recording began – 2,102 compared to 3,034 in 2018-19 – a drop of 30 per cent in just a single year.

There’s more. The number of convictions is also at its lowest level and is down a quarter at 1,439, less than half of what it was just two years ago. And while the number of cases charged has risen slightly, they are still significantly less than in the years recorded leading up to 2018.

These figures are utterly shameful. To put them into context, police-recorded rape offences have increased dramatically over six years to 55,130 in 2020 in 2019.

Yet, the vast majority of those who report rape will never get justice; their cases will not get even as far as a courtroom.

What we are witnessing is the decriminalisation of rape. In doing so, we are failing to give justice to thousands of complainants. In some cases, we are enabling persistent predatory sex offenders to re-offend, comforted by the knowledge that they are highly unlikely to be held to account.

This is likely to mean we are creating more victims as a result of our failure to act.

The start of this dramatic fall coincides when, in September 2016, the CPS director of legal services wrote a document called “Decision-making in RASSO cases” expressing a wish to “lift the conviction rate” which could be achieved by taking “weaker cases” out of the system.

He cautioned in the document itself that “a change to the approach to code decision making may lead to over-correction and a failure to prosecute where the code test is met” – regardless of that warning, the CPS still proceeded with this change of practice.

The director of legal services in the CPS personally carried out some roadshows in which he is reported to have urged rape prosecutors to adopt a “touch on the tiller” against prosecuting “difficult” rape cases in order to ensure a conviction rate of 60 per cent and higher.

During a training session in 2017, prosecutors were reportedly told to “take 350 weaker cases a year out of the system” in order to increase the overall conviction rate to 60 per cent plus and the conviction after trial rate to 50 per cent plus. While the CPS agreed that the seminar took place, and didn't dispute senior officials' language, it maintained that it was “completely untrue” that the training signalled a shift in its code.

In reaction to the figures, Sarah Crew, deputy chief constable for Avon and Somerset police and the National Police Chiefs' lead on adult sex offences, said there appears to have been a change in the CPS’ evidence test. Police officers have found it’s harder to achieve the standard of evidence now required to get a charge and get the suspect into court.

The results of this change in approach are stark. In the year ending March 2017, CPS charged 3671 cases, in the next year they charged only 2822 and in 2018-19 charges dropped to a mere 1758 a 52 per cent decrease across those years.

Meanwhile, police referrals remained steady at over 4000 until 2018/19 when police appreciated how few cases were being charged. Then referrals dropped to 3375 – the CPS change in practice had clearly had a knock-on effect.

The CPS denies a change of prosecution policy, but so far, it has failed to offer any explanation to account for the fall in the number of cases being prosecuted. Instead, it has published a “five-year blueprint for prosecuting rape and serious sexual offences” called RASSO 2025.

As the name suggests, this is a strategy that looks forward five years into the future. But rape complainants cannot wait that long for change. The CPS must change its practice in how it prosecutes rape now.

Max Hill, the director of public prosecutions, could reverse that decline immediately. In fact, he has been asked to do so by rape campaigners for the entire time he has been in post.

For the sake of getting a higher rate of convictions, the CPS has cut the volume of cases they charge, leaving thousands of rape complainants without the chance of justice, even in instances when they appear to have a strong evidential case. The bowing to rape myths must end.

Victims of rape and sexual assault are being badly let down. Any victim of sexual violence must feel able to come forward and report in the knowledge they will be supported, treated with respect and given access to justice.

Dame Vera Baird QC is the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales

If you have been affected by rape or sexual abuse, you can contact Rape Crisis on 0808 802 9999 or visit rapecrisis.org.uk