Prime Minister Boris Johnson said “there is a problem” with the way cases of violence against women and girls are handled.
His interview with broadcasters came amid debates over how Wayne Couzens – who used his police powers to kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard – was allowed to become and remain a Metropolitan Police officer.
Mr Johnson said: “I do think that we can trust the police. And I think the police do a wonderful, wonderful job.
“But there is a problem. And there is a problem in the way we handle rape, domestic violence, sexual violence and the way we handle the complaints of women and girls. It’s overwhelmingly women and girls.”
He added: “The problem is we have too few prosecutions for rape and too few successful prosecutions, too few convictions.
“Yesterday I got together the crime and justice taskforce, again, and what we’re trying to do is compress that timetable between a woman’s complaint about what has happened and any action, whether it’s the court proceeding, or the conviction, or whatever.
“Because the time from report to referral, from referral to the court proceedings, from court proceedings to the conclusion, all three of those segments is far too long.
“And what you’re seeing is the whole system snarled up with evidential problems, with data issues, with mobile phones disclosure, all that kind of stuff, and it’s a nightmare for the women concerned. So we’ve got to fix it.”
