Congratulations to Warwick Law School’s Professor Vanessa Munro who has been awarded funding to work with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in implementing and evaluating changes to improve responses to complaints and complainants of rape.

Vanessa Munro has recently been appointed by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to undertake an independent review of initiatives undertaken to date, and to be implemented or rolled out in the near future, under the ‘Operation Soteria’ initiative.

Operation Soteria arose out of the Ministry of Justice’s recent ‘End to End Rape Review’ and is intended to improve performance and outcomes both in the handling of rape complaints and the treatment of rape complainants across the criminal justice system.

CPS activities under Soteria are centred around 6 key area – partnership working in respect of early investigations, scrutiny in relation to ‘no further action’ decisions, monitoring of case action plans, case progression and trial preparation, victim support and staff well-being / development.

Through a series of fieldwork interviews and observations, as well as case file sampling, Vanessa – working with a postdoc researcher based at Warwick - will explore progress made to date within 5 pathfinder CPS areas and identify areas where further change is required in order to ensure successful outcomes in relation to Soteria’s objectives. A final report will be produced for the CPS in late 2023, though findings will be shared at key points in the evaluation process to inform and improve policy and practice.

Vanessa commented, “I am really delighted to have this opportunity to work closely and constructively with the CPS to improve responses to rape complaints in England and Wales. The policy and practice ambitions under Operation Soteria have the potential to address key barriers to justice currently experienced by victims in sex offence cases. It is crucial that we seize this moment to bring meaningful and substantial change.”

Congratulations Vanessa and good luck with the research.