During the Urgent Question in the House of Commons on the Government’s end-to-end review of the criminal justice system response to rape, I raised the issue of military rape conviction rates with the Minister of for Crime and Policing and I asked him whether he would discuss this with his colleague the Secretary of State for Defence.
You can read my question and the response here:
Sarah Atherton (Question):
The military conviction rate is far lower than that in the civil system. Service personnel and veterans’ representatives are all calling for military rape to be heard in civilian courts. Will my right hon. Friend agree to discuss with his Ministry of Defence counterpart that all victims, regardless of where the assault took place, should receive the justice that they deserve?
Minister of State for Crime & Policing, Kit Malthouse (Answer):
I share my hon. Friend’s concern about the low figures in military courts as well, and I will of course discuss that with the Secretary of State for Defence or my ministerial counterpart. I know that my hon. Friend is authoring, or leading on, a report on women in the armed forces at the moment. I shall look forward to reading that as well and drawing some conclusions from it for my work.
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