UK unveils £23m plan for specialist rape courts across England and Wales

Dedicated facilities and victim support

Every Crown Court across England and Wales will establish at least one courtroom dedicated specifically to hearing rape and serious sexual offence cases over the next two years. The Ministry of Justice will fund the courtroom upgrades through a £23 million budget allocation. The facilities will include separate waiting rooms and private entrances designed to prevent victims and survivors from coming into contact with defendants. Upgraded courtrooms will also feature equipment allowing victims to pre-record evidence before trial and observe sentencing proceedings remotely. To assist survivors through the legal process, court staff will undergo trauma-informed training, and court administrators will assign a single person of contact to each survivor.

Procedural shifts and scheduling reforms

The Ministry of Justice will implement procedural changes across the court system, beginning next month with a move to fixed trial dates for sexual offence cases. Under the previous arrangement, cases were placed on floating lists, leaving them vulnerable to being rescheduled on short notice and delayed by months. The fixed scheduling system follows earlier reforms introduced this year that granted rape victims access to specialist legal advice throughout the legal process. The policy aligns with the Labour Party's 2024 manifesto pledge to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham addressed the backlog and low conviction rates when presenting the policy.

For too long, victims of rape and serious sexual offences have felt let down by our justice system. Prosecution rates for rape remain shamefully low, with many victims waiting years for justice. This is not good enough.

Burnham noted that court improvements must operate alongside wider preventative initiatives.

So as well as ensuring victims get justice, we will step up action to prevent these horrific crimes from happening in the first place.

Parliamentary momentum and sector response

The reform package follows public disclosures by Labour MP Charlotte Nichols, who waived her statutory right to anonymity during a House of Commons speech in March. Nichols spoke about being raped after attending an event as a member of parliament and described enduring a 1,088-day wait for her case to reach court. The Ministry of Justice credited Nichols with showing strength and bravery in advocating for structural changes across the court system.

Today marks a hugely important milestone, helping to improve the experience of victims and survivors of sexual violence in the court system who are all too often retraumatised by seeking justice. I'm proud that substantive, meaningful change has come from waiving my anonymity to speak about my own experiences, and am hugely grateful to the prime minister and lord chancellor for taking forward these measures, as I know the difference they would have made for me and so many of the survivors I have worked with in recent years.

Advocacy groups and justice officials welcomed the court package. Rape Crisis England and Wales chief executive Ciara Bergman endorsed the funding, noting that the measures addressed longstanding institutional requests from support services, while Victims' Commissioner Claire Waxman also commented on the announcement.

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.

Implementation milestones

The implementation timeline spans policy commitments from 2024 through the two-year Crown Court rollout concluding in 2028.