Specialist courts for rape cases to be rolled out across England and Wales
Specialist rape courts to be introduced across England and Wales
Ninoda.com – Every Crown Court in England and Wales is set to provide at least one courtroom equipped to handle rape and other serious sexual offence cases under a two-year national rollout announced by Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
The programme is intended to make court proceedings less intimidating for complainants and to reduce some of the pressures faced by survivors during lengthy criminal cases. It will be funded from the Ministry of Justice budget at an expected cost of about £23m.
Changes aimed at supporting survivors
The specialist courtrooms will include measures designed to limit unnecessary contact between alleged victims and defendants. Where building design allows, survivors will have access to separate entrances and private waiting areas.
Complainants will also be able to follow hearings remotely and, when giving evidence, do so by video link from another room rather than appearing directly in the courtroom. Court staff will receive trauma-informed training, while each survivor will be assigned a single named contact throughout the process.
From next month, rape and serious sexual offence trials will be listed for a fixed date instead of being placed on floating lists. The change is intended to give victims more certainty about when their case will be heard and reduce the disruption caused by postponements.
“For too long, victims of rape and serious sexual offences have felt let down by our justice system,” Burnham said.
He said prosecution rates for rape remained “shamefully low” and that many complainants had spent years waiting for their cases to reach court.
“This is not good enough.”
Burnham described the reforms as an attempt to “rebalance the scales of justice and put victims first”. He also said improving prosecutions alone would not be sufficient, adding that preventing violence against women and girls must remain a central objective.
A response to long-running concerns
Rape Crisis England and Wales welcomed the plans, describing them as an important move forward after years of calls for better treatment of survivors in the justice system.
“Taken together, they reflect the urgency of ensuring that courts are fit for purpose and properly meet the needs of victims and survivors, which is crucial to securing justice,” said the charity’s chief executive, Ciara Bergman.
The planned rollout follows sustained concern over criminal court backlogs and the effect of delays on victims of rape and sexual assault. Long waits can leave survivors facing repeated uncertainty, disrupted personal lives and the possibility that a case may not proceed at all.
Last year, the Salford Survivor Project said that people reporting rape and sexual assault were being failed as court backlogs reached record levels. Campaigners have warned that delays can have serious consequences for victims, including some deciding they cannot continue with a prosecution.
The government has previously announced that rape victims will receive access to specialist legal advice during the criminal justice process. The new court arrangements add a practical layer of support inside the court system itself, focusing on how survivors experience the period between a charge and a trial.
Charlotte Nichols’ experience
The announcement was linked by the government to Labour MP Charlotte Nichols, who waived her automatic right to anonymity in March and spoke publicly about being raped. She called for changes after describing a wait of more than 1,000 days before her case reached court.
Nichols said she waited 1,088 days for her trial, a period she described as “agony”. She also said the impact of the delay was intensified by her public role.
Her attacker was acquitted in Crown Court, but she later succeeded in a civil claim and he was ordered to pay compensation. Nichols has argued that her own experience shaped her commitment to reforms that properly serve victims and survivors.
“It is because I have been raped that I am as passionate as I am about what it means for a justice system to be truly victim-focused,” she said.
“It is because I have endured every indignity that our broken criminal justice system could mete out that I care what kind of reform will actually deliver justice for survivors and victims of crime more widely.”
Nichols first addressed the issue publicly during debate over court reform. She criticised the then Justice Secretary, David Lammy, for using crime victims as a “cudgel” in support of proposed legal-system changes.
Those proposals in the Courts and Tribunals Bill would restrict jury trials to cases expected to carry a prison sentence of at least three years. The issue has become part of the wider political disagreement over how to tackle court delays without weakening established trial protections.
Political pressure over jury trials and delays
The Conservatives said action on delayed rape trials was overdue, but urged Labour to abandon plans to limit jury trials. Shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy said the priority should be expanding court sitting time, clearing the backlog and protecting the right to trial by jury.
“The fact that victims have been withdrawing their cases because they have taken too long has been a disgrace,” Timothy said.
Labour pledged in its 2024 manifesto to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. The specialist-court plan forms part of the government’s effort to show that criminal justice reform can improve the experience of survivors while also addressing the broader challenge of sexual violence.
The success of the programme will depend not only on redesigned court spaces but on whether fixed trial dates, trained staff and survivor support can make a meaningful difference in cases that have too often been marked by delay and uncertainty.
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