This is a vital point, continually ignored by the Victims Commissioner. The primary driver behind the drop in prosecutions for sexual offences - like all offences - is that lack of police resources means suspects are being released under investigation (RUI’d) for *years*.
The statistics do not show that the CPS are failing to prosecute meritorious cases - they show a huge logjam as the system lacks the resources to investigate cases, and investigations drag on for years: 
Look at the huge increase in the light blue, which represents “no outcome yet” - i.e. cases which haven’t been dropped or charged, but are in purgatory.
In fact, cases dropped or not pursued because of evidential difficulties *fell* significantly last year.
In fact, cases dropped or not pursued because of evidential difficulties *fell* significantly last year.
The reason partly lies in the change to police bail laws in 2017. After criticism that suspects were being made subject to police bail for overly long periods of time (especially high profile suspects who were ultimately not charged with any offence), the govt chased headlines.
The govt placed strict limits on the use of police bail. But of course, that didn’t do anything to address the reason that people had been languishing on police bail - i.e. lack of police resources to investigate with any speed. So what did the police do?
They stopped bailing suspects for years on end. And instead started “Releasing Under Investigation” for years on end instead. Brand new label, same old problem.
Meanwhile, investigations became more complex and time-consuming due to digital explosion, and the problem compounded.
Meanwhile, investigations became more complex and time-consuming due to digital explosion, and the problem compounded.
This problem with RUI is why we are currently seeing cases appearing in the Crown Court for incidents that happened in 2018, 2017 or earlier. It is taking years to charge. This is no secret - it has been covered in the press: theguardian.com/law/2019/jun/1…
So, bringing us back to the huge - and worrying - drop off in prosecutions for allegations of rape, this bug in the criminal justice system is, by all evidence, a major contributing factor. Complaints are stuck in the backlog, with no decisions being made.
That’s not to say there is no problem with charging decisions - there may well be. But it is maddening that depleted police and CPS resources and the use of RUI are ignored by the Victims Commissioner, who pretends that the fault lies solely with poor charging decisions.
I really don’t understand what is gained by pretending that this isn’t a huge contributing factor to the decrease in prosecutions. Victims deserve honesty about where the problems in the system lie. Currently I fear they are not receiving it from those paid to represent them.
