![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/rape-reform-programme-extended-across-england-and-wales/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/128979028_police-gettyimages-157186464.jpg&description=Image source, Getty Images Women who have made rape complaints have told BBC News police and court systems are still "weighted in favour of the accused", despite a new programme piloted by 19 police forces. Operation Soteria is being extended to all 43 police areas in England and Wales from Monday. Home Secretary Suella Braverman wants police to "focus on the suspect", not on undermining the victim. But women have told the BBC they find the process tough, even in pilot areas. The latest available official figures show between April and December 2022 there were about 50,000 rape offences recorded by police in England and Wales. Of these, about 900 (less than 2%) had yet resulted in a charge or court summons. The government says charge rates were markedly better in five police areas where trials of Operation Soteria first began in 2021 and 2022, more than doubling in all but one by the end of 2022. The programme, a partnership of police, prosecutors and academics, aims to transform the response to rape and sexual offences - but even in the first five areas, fewer than one in 12 complaints led to charges. Notably, Soteria was adopted by the Metropolitan Police in September 2021, but in March this year Baroness Casey's review into the force found evidence of "a strategic and operational failure to tackle rape and sexual offences within the Met which compounds the harm for victims". These failures included a fridge containing forensic samples being switched off by accident, compromising a rape investigation, her report found. One woman, who is using the pseudonym Louise, feels the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) set her up to fail. Image caption, Louise spoke to BBC News Home Affairs Correspondent June Kelly Hers was one of the few cases to make it court but her former partner was acquitted when he was tried in London last year. The CPS did not arrange a court familiarisation visit until London's Victims' Commissioner Claire Waxman intervened, the prosecutor did not tell){kind=link}
Women who have made rape complaints have told BBC News police and court systems are still “weighted in favour of the accused”, despite a new programme piloted by 19 police forces.
Operation Soteria is being extended to all 43 police areas in England and Wales from Monday.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman wants police to “focus on the suspect”, not on undermining the victim.
But women have told the BBC they find the process tough, even in pilot areas.
The latest available official figures show between April and December 2022 there were about 50,000 rape offences recorded by police in England and Wales.