§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases the Criminal Cases Review Commission are reviewing; how cases are classified; what percentage of all cases concern sexual abuse and of those, how many cases are(a) related to historic sexual abuse in care homes and (b) within a domestic context: and what period of time has elapsed between the sex crime being committed, the case being brought to court and the CCRC considering the case in each case. [64267]
§ Hilary BennAt 30 April 2002 there were 402 cases under review and 309 waiting for allocation distributed as follows:
Stage Cases Waiting for Stage 1 review 3 Under Stage 1 review 35 Waiting for Stage 2 Screen review 120 Under State 2 Screen review 171 Waiting for Stage 2 review 186 Under Stage 2 review 187 Under Stage 3 review 9 The Commission includes abuse in care homes cases in the category of "Sexual Offences". Sexual offences cases constitute a very significant percentage of all the applications received.
1197WOf the 834 applications received in the 12 months to 31 March 2002 the sexual offences were as shown:
Sexual offences Number of offences Percentage of all offences Number of counts Percentage of all counts Indecent assault 129 12.1 328 18.9 Rape 124 11.8 195 11.2 Other 67 6.3 165 9.5 Total 320 30.2 688 39.6 The Commission has set up a working group to analyse and refine its approach to child sex abuse cases and this group will gather more detailed data on the type and circumstances of the offences and convictions. This will include information on the institutional/domestic environment of the offence and the elapsed time from the crime to the conviction.
The average time between conviction and application to the Commission for all applications is 3.5 years.