Specialist rape courts to open across England and Wales
Rape trials will also be given fixed dates instead of being placed on lists that can be moved at short notice, the Ministry of Justice said.
Every Crown Court in England and Wales is to get at least one courtroom set up to hear rape and serious sexual offence cases, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced.
The courtrooms will be introduced over the next two years and backed by what the Ministry of Justice called a “multi-million cash injection”, though it did not give a figure.
Rape and serious sexual offence trials will also be given a fixed date, rather than being placed on floating lists where they can be moved at short notice and delayed by many months, the ministry said.
Victims will have private entrances and waiting rooms, and the courtrooms will be equipped for evidence to be pre-recorded and for sentencing to be watched remotely.
In 2025, rape cases took an average of 424 days to complete once they reached the Crown Court, with too many victims withdrawing before their case was heard, the ministry said.
“Prosecution rates for rape remain shamefully low, with many victims waiting years for justice,” Burnham said.
The prime minister said the changes were “long overdue” but that “focusing on prosecution alone will not be enough”, adding that the government would step up action to prevent such crimes.
Lord Chancellor Alex Norris said victims had been “treated as cases to process and not as people to support”.
All court staff will get trauma-informed training, and a trial will give victims of sex offences a single point of contact during the court process, the ministry said.
A new Rape Justice Taskforce will bring together leaders from across the criminal justice system to tackle the rising rate of postponed rape trials, it added.
Ciara Bergman, chief executive of Rape Crisis England & Wales, called the package “a significant step forward for our justice system” and said separate waiting areas, entrances and exits for survivors were “both necessary and long overdue”.
The announcement follows a pledge made earlier in September that all police forces in England and Wales would have dedicated rape and sexual offence investigation teams by the end of 2027.
The government said its Courts and Tribunals Bill, aimed at cutting the backlog of cases, was set to return to Parliament in October.