Sexual offences make up growing proportion of cases with longest delays

Sexual offences account for a growing proportion of cases with the longest delays in crown courts in England and Wales, figures show.

Nearly one in five (18%) backlog cases that had been open for at least two years as of the end of June 2025 were for this category of offence.

This is up from 13% in June 2024 and 11% in June 2023.

Some 1,070 cases involving sexual offences had been open for two years or more at the end of June, according to analysis by the PA news agency of Ministry of Justice data.

It is the first time this figure has been above 1,000 since current records began in 2016.

The total is up sharply from 776 cases in June 2024 and 689 in 2023.

There were 431 rape cases open for at least two years as of June, compared with 273 12 months earlier and 261 in 2023.

Rape cases accounted for 7% of the two-year backlog in June, up from 5% in 2024 and 4% in 2023.

The category of offence that makes up the single largest proportion of cases open for at least two years is that of violence against the person, accounting for 25% of the total in June, up slightly from 23% in both 2024 and 2023.

Drug offences made up 15% of the total in June, down from 18% in 2024 and 21% in 2023.

Overall, some 5,913 crown court cases in England and Wales had been open for at least two years as of June 30, while a record 19,164 had been open for at least one year.

Katie Kempen, chief executive of the charity Victim Support, said the figures showed many victims are “waiting years for their case to come to trial, their lives on hold while they are denied access to justice”.

She added: “These are not just statistics – they are real people, often struggling to cope, losing faith in the system, and facing serious emotional and psychological consequences.

“At the same time, vital victims’ services have faced devastating funding cuts in the past year – services which are a lifeline to victims facing lengthy delays, preventing them from dropping out of the criminal justice process altogether.

“The Government cannot allow the backlog to continue growing, while cutting funding for the very services which support victims through the process.”

Ministers are due to respond this autumn to the findings of a review of the courts system led by Sir Brian Leveson, which proposed reducing the number of jury trials and creating a new type of crown court where trials are heard by judges.

The review was commissioned by the Government with the aim of trying to “reduce the risk of total system collapse”.