Rape convictions rose between Keir Starmer becoming CPS boss and him leaving

By Press Association

April 11 2024, 12:03pm

Sir Keir Starmer ran the CPS between 2008 and 2013 (Lewis Whyld/PA)

During Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons, Rishi Sunak said rape convictions fell during Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s tenure in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Mr Sunak, the Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, said on Wednesday March 6: “The right honourable and learned gentleman raises his time at the Crown Prosecution Service, but he has not acknowledged that, under his tenure, rape convictions actually dropped.”

Evaluation: Missing context

According to CPS data, the number of rape convictions, prosecutions, and the proportion of prosecutions ending in convictions were all higher in the year ending March 2014, when Sir Keir left the organisation, than they were in both 2008 – the year he was appointed – and the year before that.

Downing Street pointed to data showing convictions falling between the fourth quarter of the year ending March 2011, two years after Sir Keir took charge, and the final quarter of his tenure in 2013, as justification for the Prime Minister’s statement.

The facts

Sir Keir, who qualified as a barrister in 1987, spent five years as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at the CPS from November 2008 to October 2013.

The Crown Prosecution Service prosecutes criminal cases that have been investigated by the police and other organisations in England and Wales. It makes prosecuting decisions independently of the police and Government.

Figures provided to the PA news agency by the CPS show that in the year ending March 2008 – the year before Sir Keir became DPP – the number of convictions in “rape-flagged” prosecutions was 2,021.

By the year ending March 2014, which includes the last seven months before Sir Keir left the DPP, that had risen to 2,348.

The number of prosecutions in rape-flagged cases also rose in that period from 3,503 to 3,891, while the percentage of rape-flagged prosecutions ending in a conviction rose from 57.7% to 60.3%.

Within the data there are periods of decrease, for instance both rape convictions and prosecutions were highest in the year ending March 2011, with 2,467 convicted and 4,211 prosecuted.

It is this data, on a quarterly basis, which Downing Street said formed the basis of the Prime Minister’s comment.

[pa_oembed = 2e681edfe60cc87456f3cf94cc430f57]

During Sir Keir’s time in charge, rape convictions peaked at 655 in the fourth quarter of the year ending March 2011. In the third quarter of the year ending March 2014 – his last as DPP – there were 556 convictions.

The data for “rape-flagged” cases likely contains some convictions which were not for rape. These flags are assigned when cases are passed from the police to the CPS, and remain even if a decision is made to pursue different charges in relation to the alleged crime.

The CPS explained: “CPS data on successful rape prosecutions include not only cases resulting in a conviction for rape but also cases initially flagged as rape, where a conviction was obtained for an alternative or lesser offence.”

Several other factors, including funding, could also influence conviction rates.