Police will be barred from asking for rape victims’ therapy, health, school or other personal records unless it is “absolutely necessary” under new laws to reverse plummeting conviction rates.
Ministers announced the rules as part of a new victims and prisoners law which also gives victims a right to refuse to provide the information without the prospect of the police threatening to drop their case.
The moves will mirror laws already in place that limit police access to victims’ mobile phones to prevent intrusive “digital strip searches” of their private lives, which have been blamed for deterring women from continuing with a prosecution.
The Ministry of Justice said it aimed to end “expansive fishing expeditions” for information that was not relevant to the investigation and could be used to undermine the credibility of the victim.
Preventing ‘invasive requests’
The number of sexual offences including rape have jumped by a third to nearly 195,000 since before the pandemic ,while the proportion resulting in a charge have fallen to as low as 1.3 per cent.
Since ministers pledged to tackle the crisis, the charge rate has increased, although up to 60 per cent of victims withdraw from the prosecution before it comes to court amid concerns at intrusions into their private lives, delays of two years or more in bringing cases to trial, and the trauma of reliving the attack in the witness box.
The new measures to protect from “invasive requests” will cover any official “third-party” information on victims such as education, medical, social services and counselling records.
Police will be allowed to request access only if it is “absolutely necessary and proportionate” to the investigation. They will also be required by law to inform victims about what type of information is being requested, why and how it will be used.
It will dictate that any victim must be informed their refusal to hand over their phones will not automatically lead to a police investigation being dropped.
Story continuesPolice face threat of legal action
If the police fail to abide by the statutory duties in the legislation, they would be in breach of the law and could be open to a legal challenge, according to John Edwards, the Information Commissioner.
Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, said: “This important reform will end invasive unnecessary requests for therapy notes for rape victims and give them the confidence to seek the help they need earlier, free from the fear that what they share in the process of healing could be weaponised against them.
“The Victims and Prisoners Bill is ensuring victims are treated as participants in, not just spectators of, the justice system – improving support for them while overhauling the parole system to better protect the public from the most dangerous offenders.”
Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, said: “It is simply unacceptable that victims of some of the most traumatic crimes have had significant amounts of their personal records unnecessarily requested.”
The changes followed a Home Office consultation in 2022 which showed that almost 90 per cent of respondents were in favour of introducing a statutory duty on police forces to only make necessary and proportionate requests for the disclosure of third-party information.
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