The director of public prosecutions for England and Wales has been severely criticised by Vera Baird, the victims’ commissioner, for failing to take responsibility for a record-breaking low in rape convictions.
Max Hill, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, was accused by Baird of overseeing a “catastrophic” period in the organisation’s history. She also claimed there were half as many rapists off the streets since he took charge.
Her comments followed Hill’s interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, when he claimed he was trying to restore lost public confidence over rape cases by changes that include saving cases from being written off by police.
ONS figures last month revealed there were 63,136 rape offences in the year to September 2021, while prosecutions were 1.3%.
Appearing on the same programme, Baird was asked which organisation should accept the blame for the poor rape conviction rates. She said: “It is the CPS’s fault, almost completely. And I could hear Justin [Webb, the presenter] interviewing Max Hill expecting him to accept some blame, but he didn’t.
“Every year since 2010, the CPS prosecuted 3,900-ish cases. Every year since he’s arrived they’ve prosecuted less than 2,000. Convictions were always over 2,200, they got almost to 3,000 – since he arrived, they’ve never been more than 1,500.
“I think Max Hill has presided as DPP over the most catastrophic period in the CPS’s history for prosecuting rape,” she said.
Baird also claimed Hill had appeared on the programme because he was pre-empting a report by Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate into rape convictions that is expected to be released on Friday.
“They are expecting an inspection report on Friday and it seems to me they are trying to pre-empt it because it is likely to be poor.
“Certainly the last one said that there was a lack of awareness in the CPS on trauma. They said they approached cases with a view to focus on the weaknesses rather than the strengths.
“An increased conviction rate of 60% is not much use if you are prosecuting very few cases. There are half the number of rapists off the streets than there were before Max Hill became DPP,” she said.
Hill, who took over as DPP from Alison Saunders in 2018, said earlier on the same programme that he was “deeply frustrated” that so many women who suffer sexual violence, feel a lack of confidence in the entire criminal justice system.
“What they are finding over the last year is that by sitting down with police officers at a much earlier stage they can take an investigation that might look as though it is not capable of prosecution, have a conversation about it and convert it into a case that is in court now,” he said.
He said that ‘far too few” rape cases were reaching the CPS because of decisions made by the police.
“Far too few of the complaints of rape are ever reaching the attention of the CPS. That is where early advice comes in, case progression clinics come in. When the police decide at the conclusion of an investigation that they can’t take any further, we have set up scrutiny panels where we will say ‘bring us a selection of those cases’.
“In some, we are able to say ‘have you thought about another angle on the evidence?’” he said.
The CPS has published an update on its handling of rape and serious sexual offences that also highlights plans to recruit more specialist rape prosecutors and improve victim support.
