Specialist courtrooms for rape and other sexual offence cases will be introduced across England and Wales within the next two years, the government has announced.
The plan will see every Crown Court provided with at least one courtroom dedicated to handling rape and sexual offence cases, with victims able to follow proceedings remotely and give evidence from separate rooms through video links.
The new arrangements will also include private entrances and waiting areas for victims to reduce contact with defendants, although officials said the availability of such facilities would depend on the design of individual court buildings.
Under the measures, court staff will receive trauma-informed training, while each survivor will be assigned a single point of contact throughout the process.
From next month, rape trials will also be given fixed dates instead of being placed on floating lists, in a move Prime Minister Andy Burnham said would “rebalance the scales of justice and put victims first”.
“For too long, victims of rape and serious sexual offences have felt let down by our justice system,” Burnham said.
“Prosecution rates for rape remain shamefully low, with many victims waiting years for justice. This is not good enough.”
The government said the reforms are part of efforts to address the backlog of Crown Court cases, which stood at 80,098 at the end of March. Rape Crisis England and Wales said 15,373 of those cases, representing 19 per cent, involved sexual offences.
Only 2.8 per cent of rape offences recorded by police resulted in prosecutions in the year ending March 2024, while such cases also took longer to investigate than other crimes.
Rape Crisis England and Wales welcomed the planned reforms, with its chief executive, Ciara Bergman, describing them as a “significant step forward”.
“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,” she said.
The specialist courtrooms are expected to cost about £23m from the Ministry of Justice budget.
The government said every one of the 84 Crown Court buildings in England and Wales would have at least one specialist rape and sexual offences courtroom by 2028.
Where the design of a court prevents physical changes, staff will instead be expected to adopt trauma-informed arrangements, such as providing separate arrival times and rooms for victims and defendants.
Victims minister Alex Davies-Jones said the specialist courtrooms were only one part of the government’s efforts to reduce delays.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Davies-Jones said the introduction of specialist courtrooms “isn’t enough on its own” and highlighted the Courts and Tribunals Bill as necessary to improve “timeliness, effectiveness and also prevention”.
The Conservatives welcomed the move but said it should not be linked to plans to restrict jury trials.
Shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy said, “The fact that victims have been withdrawing their cases because they have taken too long has been a disgrace.”
“Labour need to get courts sitting throughout the year, end the delays and clear the backlog – not undermine our right to a trial by jury.”
The reforms follow Labour MP Charlotte Nichols’ decision to speak publicly about her experience of rape and call for changes to the justice system.
Nichols waived her automatic right to anonymity in March when she told the House of Commons that she had waited more than 1,000 days for her case to reach court.
She said she had waited 1,088 days to go to court, describing the wait as “agony”.
Her attacker was acquitted at Crown Court, but she later won a civil case against him, resulting in an order for compensation.
Earlier this year, the government also announced that rape victims would receive access to specialist legal advice throughout the criminal justice process.
Labour had pledged in its 2024 manifesto to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.
