Rebel MPs defeated on specialist rape courts

The government has defeated a move by rebel MPs to amend the Courts and Tribunals Bill by introducing specialist rape courts - a Labour manifesto commitment.

The amendment, tabled by Labour MPs Charlotte Nichols and Stella Creasy, would have established dedicated courts for sexual offences and domestic abuse cases, with those cases heard by a specialist judge and jury. The amendment would have also imposed time limits on case preparation, fixed dates for trial and prioritised cases where the accused is bailed.

Meeting for the final day of legislative scrutiny this morning, six members of the Courts and Tribunals Bill committee voted in favour of the amendment being read a second time. Nine members voted against. 

Courts minister Sarah Sackman was repeatedly reminded by MPs that the amendment honoured Labour's 2024 manifesto commitment to fast-track rape cases with specialist courts at every Crown court in England and Wales.

Sackman told the committee that the government remained committed to fulfilling its manifesto pledge. However, she said specialist courts for sexual offences or for any other type of crime 'are not an alternative to the informed measures put forward in this bill because they would not, of themselves reduce the Crown court’s outstanding caseload. They would not drive down wait times in the longer term'. She also told the committee that the establishment of specialist courts does not require legislation.

Similar amendments for specialist rape courts have been tabled by opposition MPs that have yet to be voted on.

Shadow minister Kieran Mullan acknowledged that governments sometimes do things that do not appear in the manifesto, but ‘if a government puts in its manifesto a particular element of direct relevance as it did in relation to specialist courts, you can see the public would have every right to be aggrieved that something else entirely different and very significantly different appeared as government policy instead of what was in their manifesto’.

Legislative scrutiny of the bill must end by 5pm today.