Leeds Women’s Aid’s Chief Executive Nik Peasgood shares response to Andy Burnham’s announcement that courtrooms for specialist rape and serious sex offences are to be rolled out across every Crown Court in England and Wales.
“Leeds Women’s Aid welcomes the Prime Minister’s plans to reform the court system by rolling out specialist courts for rape and sexual offense cases. For years, victim-survivors have been side-lined by a system they do not trust, and our teams work tirelessly to help them navigate structures that fail to meet their needs. While West Yorkshire’s specialist teams have shown the value of expertise, units alone cannot fix systemic failures. Severe delays in charging decisions, court hearings, and trials retraumatise victim-survivors, force many to drop out of proceedings and erode public trust in the legal system.
Practical transformations to courts, such as private waiting rooms and entrances, fixed court dates and a single point of contact, will have a major impact on victim-survivors’ well-being. However, improving the system requires a genuinely whole-system approach backed by sustainable investment across policing, the Crown Prosecution Service, the courts, victim support services and advocacy provision. This must include full recognition of the role of Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) and Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs), with practice aligning strictly to statutory guidance so that victim-survivors receive consistent, specialist support before, during, and after court proceedings.
Additionally, we advocate for the greater routine use of expert evidence in court where appropriate, ensuring a better understanding of the impacts of trauma, coercion, and sexual violence to support fairer outcomes.
Urgent attention must also be paid to the thousands of people affected by the upcoming early release of prisoners’ scheme. Although the scheme excludes the early release of people convicted of rape, serious child sexual offences and grooming, many dangerous sexual violence perpetrators will fall through the gaps, meaning victim-survivors are living in fear that their perpetrator will be released with inadequate measures in place to keep them safe. Wider changes to the criminal justice system must explicitly consider historic victim-survivors.
We will be following closely to see if the government’s actions match up to promises, and we will continue to advocate for an adequately resourced system to support anyone affected by sexual violence to access real justice in England and Wales.”
-Nik Peasgood, Chief Executive of Leeds Women’s Aid
Learn more about these changes at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/specialist-rape-courts-rolled-out-across-the-country