The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has said the way rape and serious sexual offences are investigated in England and Wales can depend on where a victim lives, describing the police response as a “postcode lottery” and promising specialist units in every force by 2029.
Speaking on Sky News on Sunday, Mahmood said too many survivors face inconsistent standards in everything from the initial response to the likelihood of charges and prosecutions. “It’s a postcode lottery,” she said, arguing that the criminal justice system must deliver a more reliable service regardless of force boundaries.
Her comments come ahead of the government’s broader violence against women and girls (VAWG) strategy, due later this week, which ministers are framing as a “whole-of-government” plan. Mahmood has described VAWG as a “national emergency” and said the government’s ambition is to halve such violence within a decade.
At the centre of the policing package is a commitment to create dedicated rape and serious sexual offence investigation teams in all 43 forces in England and Wales by 2029. The aim is to build capability and consistency by using specialist investigators and training designed to challenge rape myths and victim-blaming attitudes, an approach ministers say should improve both victim experience and case outcomes.
The plans are being presented as the next step after Operation Soteria, the national operating model for rape investigations and prosecutions rolled out across all forces and Crown Prosecution Service areas by 2023. Soteria shifted policing towards suspect-focused, trauma-informed investigations, but inspections and survivor evidence have continued to highlight uneven delivery and persistent delays.
Recent government statistics underscore the scale of the challenge. In the year to March 2025, 4.2% of recorded sexual offences resulted in a charge or summons in England and Wales. For rape, the figure was 2.8%. Nearly half of rape investigations ended with “evidential difficulties” outcomes, while the median time to a charge decision in rape cases ran to well over a year.
Inspectorate findings have also raised questions about whether forces have the staff and skills to meet the ambition without disrupting other areas of policing. A 2024 inspection by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services found that in some forces around half of rape investigators were not yet qualified, with detective vacancy rates reaching as high as 45% in certain units. The same inspection highlighted concerns about specialist staff being diverted to cover major events and public order demands.
The Home Secretary has insisted that the issue is not simply a lack of money but the need to ensure the “resources are there” in the right form, with the right training and leadership. However, there is pressure on ministers to clarify how new units will be funded and protected, after reports that there is no ring-fenced budget for the nationwide rollout and that forces may be expected to implement the changes from existing allocations.
Campaigners and parliamentarians have welcomed the renewed focus but questioned the timetable. Andrea Simon, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said reform was needed but warned that waiting until 2029 for full coverage would leave years more of inconsistent practice, which she said was “not acceptable” for survivors seeking justice. Karen Bradley, the Conservative MP who chairs the Home Affairs Committee, has also criticised delays to the wider VAWG strategy, warning they risk creating uncertainty about the government’s priorities.
Alongside the specialist units, ministers plan to roll out Domestic Abuse Protection Orders nationally across England and Wales, following pilot schemes. The orders are designed to allow courts to impose a range of conditions, including exclusion zones, electronic tagging and requirements to attend behaviour-change programmes, with breach carrying a potential prison sentence of up to five years.
Mahmood also confirmed an 18-month pilot aimed at online abuse, backed by almost £2m, to fund officers using covert and intelligence-led tactics to target perpetrators operating on apps and websites. She compared the approach to existing covert work tackling online child abuse, which she said had led to more than 1,700 arrests.
The Home Secretary’s remarks formed part of a wider round of interviews in which she also dismissed claims in the Trump administration’s national security strategy that Europe faces “civilisational erasure” because of migration, saying the UK had managed multiculturalism “very well” while acknowledging that integration and public confidence remained political priorities.
For victims’ groups, the immediate test will be whether the government can translate the language of a “national emergency” into practical changes that shorten delays, reduce attrition and ensure that the quality of a rape investigation no longer depends on a victim’s postcode.
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