The Government has announced that every Crown Court in England and Wales will have at least one specialist courtroom for rape and serious sexual offence cases within the next two years.
The programme will create dedicated courtrooms inside the existing Crown Court estate rather than a separate court system. Ministers say the rooms will be designed to make proceedings less traumatic for complainants while giving rape and serious sexual offence trials greater priority.
Planned facilities include private entrances and waiting areas, equipment allowing evidence to be recorded in advance and arrangements enabling victims to observe sentencing remotely. Court staff working on the cases will receive trauma-informed training.
Fixed trial dates and priority listing
A central part of the reform is the use of fixed trial dates. Rape and serious sexual offence cases are to be prioritised instead of being placed in so-called floating lists, under which a trial can be moved at short notice when another case takes precedence.
The Ministry of Justice said rape cases completed in the Crown Court during 2025 took an average of 424 days from arrival at the court to completion. Ministers argue that repeated delays and uncertainty can intensify victims' distress and contribute to complainants withdrawing from the justice process.
The Government will also trial a single point of contact to guide victims through their case and establish a Rape Justice Taskforce involving senior figures from across the criminal justice system. The taskforce is expected to examine postponed trials and misconceptions surrounding sexual violence that may discourage victims from continuing with a prosecution.
The specialist-courtroom programme has been reported to cost about £23 million, while the Government's official announcement describes a multimillion-pound investment. A separate £43 million national rape and sexual abuse support fund is also being provided over two years.
Government says reform is long overdue
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said victims had been let down for too long and described prosecution rates for rape and serious sexual offences as shamefully low. Lord Chancellor Alex Norris said the reforms were intended to give victims greater confidence that cases would be treated with urgency and sensitivity.
The announcement follows sustained pressure for reform, including from Labour MP Charlotte Nichols, who has spoken publicly about her own experience of the criminal justice system. She waited 1,088 days for her case to reach court.
Rape Crisis England & Wales welcomed the package. Its chief executive, Ciara Bergman, said measures such as separate entrances and waiting spaces could help reduce the risk of victims encountering defendants or their supporters at court.
Specialist rooms will not solve the backlog alone
Victims' Commissioner Claire Waxman welcomed improvements to the courtroom experience but warned that specialist facilities would not, by themselves, resolve the delays affecting the criminal courts. Without enough judges, lawyers, court staff and sitting days, cases could still wait a long time before reaching a specialist room.
That distinction will be critical to judging the policy. A better-equipped courtroom can make a trial less distressing and fixed listing can provide greater certainty, but neither measure automatically increases the system's overall capacity.
The approach broadly follows recommendations made by the Law Commission in 2025. It proposed specialist sexual offences courts within existing court buildings, improved access to special measures, trauma-informed training and priority listing, while stressing that reforms must preserve a defendant's right to a fair trial.
The new courtrooms will not change the burden of proof, the presumption of innocence or the role of juries. They are intended to change how cases are scheduled and how participants are supported, not the legal test that prosecutors must meet.
What happens next
The rollout is due to take place across the Crown Court estate over two years. The practical test will be whether the Government meets that timetable and whether the changes reduce adjournments, waiting times and victim withdrawals rather than simply improving the physical setting.
The programme forms part of the Government's wider pledge to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. Ministers also say every police force in England and Wales will have a dedicated rape and serious sexual offence investigation team by the end of 2027.
For victims, the promise is a more predictable and less intimidating route through court. Delivering that promise will depend not only on specialist rooms, but on the people and resources required to bring cases to trial without years of delay.