Court of Appeal says CPS rape prosecution guidance is not ‘unlawful’ as campaigners lose legal challenge

The Court of Appeal has dismissed a legal challenge against the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over its policy on the prosecution of serious sexual offences.

The End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) said that the CPS moving away from a “merits-based approach” in 2016-2018 has given rise to “systemic illegality” and this moved towards an “unlawful predictive approach when deciding whether to charge” alleged sexual offences.

'Deeply disappointed at this outcome'

Lawers for EVAW said that the removal of references to the merits-based approached has led to a “shocking and unprecedented decline in both the rate and volume of rape offences charged by the CPS”.

EVAW’s director, Andrea Simon, said the group is “deeply disappointed at this outcome,” but that they “have no regrets about holding institutions accountable for the effective decriminalisation of rape.”

Ms Simon said: “Thousands of rape victims continue to be let down by a broken criminal justice system.