Violence against Women and Girls Crime report contents

VAWG performance data
This section of the annex covers the overall approach to crimes grouped together as ‘VAWG’ 34 , with
the caveats as outlined in the introduction. As in previous years, the majority of prosecutions of
crimes grouped under VAWG for performance management purposes are DA (85.8% 35 ), with rape at
3.9% 36 , with a rise in the proportion of sexual offences, excluding rape, at 10.2% 37 .
Since the introduction of the recording of VAWG crimes, the highest ever recorded level of police
referrals 38 of VAWG defendants for charging decisions of 129,057 was in 2014-15. In 2015-16, there
was a slight fall in police referrals compared to the previous year to 124,737; however this fall is
assessed against a rise in the proportion of cases charged from 68.5% in the previous year to 69%,
resulting in 86,067 defendants charged. 39
Out of court disposals, decided on by the CPS at the pre-charge stage, remained at 1.1% of all
referrals – the lowest proportion ever recorded – with a fall in volume from 1,473 in 2014-15 to 1,394
in 2015-16.
Graph 1 illustrates the changes in volumes of referrals and charging since 2009-10.
Graph 1: Volume of pre-charge decisions and charged defendants, 2009-10 to 2015-16
The volume of VAWG cases as a proportion of the total CPS caseload is assessed as the ‘VAWG
caseload’. The VAWG caseload rose in 2015-16, reaching the highest level ever recorded at 18.6%, as
in Graph 2.
34 CPS has grouped together a sub-set of ‘VAWG’ offences – DA, rape and sexual offences – for performance
management purposes.
35 A fall of 0.8% from the previous year.
36 A fall of 0.3% from the previous year.
37 A rise of 1.1% from the previous year.
38 Police referrals do not include sexual offences, excluding rape.
39 The CPS is continually striving to improve the quality of data used in both internal and external reports.
During the course of 2013-14, a revised method of reporting the outcomes of charging decisions was
developed. The revised method has been used in this report which provides a more accurate figure for the
percentage of defendant cases which proceeded to prosecution. For this reason, the data will differ from that
reported prior to 2013-14.
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