To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) mean and (b) median time was from offence to completion for cases of (i) rape, (ii) sexual abuse, excluding rape and (iii) domestic abuse in each of the last five years.
Answered on
27 January 2022
Below we have provided data on outstanding rape cases and sexual assault cases (excluding rape) over one year old, along with the median and mean duration (in days) of those cases from offence to completion. The data for each calendar year includes the figures as of 31st December of that year. For 2021, we can only provide that data up to the 30th September which is the latest published data available.
It is not possible to separately identify domestic abuse cases in the data we collate because domestic abuse cases are recorded as “assault” offences, and so we are not able to distinguish an assault case which includes domestic abuse.
The table below shows that the volume of cases over one year old was greatly impacted by the pandemic with a 540% increase between 2019 and 2020.
Volume of outstanding cases which have been outstanding for a year or more at the Crown Court | ||
Rape | Sexual assault - excluding rape | |
2016 | 287 | 371 |
2017 | 248 | 295 |
2018 | 156 | 196 |
2019 | 84 | 121 |
2020 | 489 | 775 |
2021 (to September) | 576 | 947 |
The table below shows timeliness across both areas. The impact of the pandemic has resulted in the median days from offence to completion increasing, and is at its highest level over the five-year period since 2016.
Offence to completion in days | ||||
Rape | Sexual assault - excluding rape | |||
Median | Mean | Median | Mean | |
2016 | 676 | 2,393 | 547 | 2,356 |
2017 | 670 | 2,423 | 510 | 2,323 |
2018 | 727 | 2,664 | 488 | 2,299 |
2019 | 808 | 2,910 | 491 | 2,154 |
2020 | 796 | 2,359 | 546 | 1,791 |
2021 (to September) | 1,020 | 2,767 | 695 | 2,115 |