On Thursday 28 March, the Ministry of Justice released its
quarterly criminal court statistics for October - December 2024, and data shows that rape and sexual offences in the Crown Court's backlog have reached yet another record high.
In March 2023 we released our
Breaking Point report on the re-traumatisation of rape and sexual abuse survivors in the Crown Court backlog. Since then, the situation has become progressively worse for survivors.
For the first time, the Ministry of Justice has also published data on child rape cases.
The latest statistics reveal that:
- The number of sexual offences waiting to go to the Crown Court is now 11,981 – another record high. This number has increased by 41% in 2 years.
- There are now 3,489 adult rape cases waiting to go to trial – an increase of 70% in 2 years.
- There are 1,646 child rape cases waiting to go to trial. This number has been growing every quarter since Q2 in 2019. Since 2022, the figure has increased by 30%.
- Survivors in child rape cases are waiting, on average, 439 days for their case to be completed after being receive by the Court. We have seen many of examples of cases taking much longer.