Clause 2 - Anonymity of defendant in rape etc. cases
Sexual Offences Bill [Lords]
4:45 pm
Ms Harriet Harman (Solicitor General, Law Officers' Department; Camberwell and Peckham, Labour)
May I intervene on my hon. and learned Friend to put a point that bears on the hon. Gentleman's intervention? He said that outcomes have worsened. Does my hon. and learned Friend understand it to be the case that the reporting of rape
has gone ahead of the increase in convictions, so that the number of convictions as a percentage of reported rapes has gone down, but the actual number of rapes brought to court and the actual number of convictions has gone up? Perhaps we should be encouraged by the increase in the numbers prosecuted and numbers convicted, but recognise that the number of allegations is moving ahead of that. The outcomes have not got worse, but we should like them to get even better. Is that not the case?