Prosecutions for Child Sexual Abuse have more than halved in 4 years

Newly published research conducted by the NSPCC reveals that child sexual abuse (CSA) prosecutions and convictions are falling, and young people are facing increasingly long and distressing court delays.

Following a freedom of information request, the NSPCC discovered that prosecutions for CSA in England and Wales have more than halved from 6,394 in 2016/17 to 3,025 in 2020/21, while convictions dropped by 45% from 4,751 to 2,595 over the same period.

Additionally, time taken for CSA cases to reach court and be completed has increased by 5 months in the last 3 years – the average time being 1 year and 10 months last year.

In its report the NSPCC highlights the fact that the reduction in prosecutions and increase in delays follows a 25% reduction in the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) budget between 2010/11 and 2019/20. It also says that England and Wales have, “experienced court closures, a drop in court staff, the ending of almost all specialist young witness schemes, a shortage of registered intermediaries and a 57% increase in police reports of CSA in 5 years”.

The report continues:

“While a review of adult rape cases resulted in the government committing to prosecution and conviction increases, there’s been no review or commitment to tackle the significant fall in CSA cases.

We’re calling on Dominic Raab, Deputy Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor, to urgently review the fall in prosecutions and convictions.”

In response to the analysis, the NSPCC is now calling on Dominic Raab, Lord Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister, to conduct a full review including:

• Review of the fall in prosecutions and convictions for CSA cases in England and Wales and set out an action plan for reversing the decline.
• Guarantee a proportion of the £477 million received by the MoJ in the Spending Review will be used to tackle the delays and backlog in CSA cases in criminal courts.
• Ensure that young people benefit from the £185 million allocated to the MoJ to increase the number of Independent Sexual Violence Advisors.
• Ensure a significant number of Independent Sexual Violence Advisors are trained to work with children and young people.
• Increase the number of registered intermediaries available to support young people give evidence in court.
• Invest in Child Houses to deliver some of the promises made by the government a year ago as part of its Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy.

Anna Edmundson, NSPCC Head of Policy and Public Affairs, said:

“Young victims of abuse have often lived through unimaginable trauma but many want to share their evidence with a court and prevent perpetrators from causing further harm.

 These figures show young witnesses are being denied this opportunity and those who do go to court experience long delays and inadequate support which risks retraumatising them further.

This is utterly unacceptable. We call on Dominic Raab to review and reverse the decline in prosecutions and convictions, use the Victims’ Law to tackle the delays affecting child sexual abuse cases going through court and provide much better support for young witnesses and victims.”