7. Has the Counsel General had discussions with the Crown Prosecution Service about a review of rape cases in Wales? OAQ51715

I welcome the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service to review all active rape and sexual offence cases in Wales and England that are currently ongoing to ensure that disclosure procedures are being properly applied. It is essential that action is taken to ensure that we can have faith, trust and confidence in our criminal justice system.

I thank the Counsel General for his response and I agree entirely with him that the fact that a number of cases have failed because the disclosure procedures on both sides—well, one side in particular—have failed endangers the way that we deal with rape cases and sexual offences in Wales, and undermines confidence in the system. That’s not something that I want to see, and I’m sure that the Counsel General doesn’t want to see that either. It’s important that justice is being administered in the right way on both sides, of course. It’s clear that there are severe deficiencies in the disclosure of information to the defence and that the Crown Prosecution Service hasn’t acted satisfactorily on every occasion to ensure that that has happened. So, can I ask specifically whether you have a number that you can give us of the cases under review in Wales? Are you discussing this with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure that appropriate resources are given to the service and on the policing side of things to ensure that we don’t fall into this trap again?

Yes, we have actually contacted them. I can’t make any comments on individual cases, of course. I’m sure the Member will accept that. We welcome the review. We have to ensure that all the regulations are followed. One of the challenges is keeping abreast of the use of technology and training in the courts, and the growth in the use of social media specifically does mean that that is now beyond anything that was imagined when those regulations and techniques were first introduced. This is not a new problem; this is not a problem that is specific just to social media. This has been a factor for decades in all sorts of prosecutions. So, I do welcome the review in both Wales and England, but this review is only an interim phase. We have to have a legal system and a criminal system that is fit for the age in which we live in terms of the people’s use of technology and information, and we have to futureproof it too.

I would like to say specifically that many of the cases have been in the context of rape cases, as the Member mentioned. It’s very important that people should continue to come forward with their complaints on that. I accept what the Member has said about having faith and confidence in the system. The figures on rape cases in Wales have been increasing. We have to be very careful with those numbers, of course, for the obvious statistical reasons, but the fact that people are willing to come forward with their complaints is to be welcomed in terms of people's willingness to bring these cases to the authorities.