Written question asked by Lord Campbell-Savours (Labour), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Baroness Scotland of Asthal (Labour) on Thursday, 30 November 2006.

Crime: Rape

Question: asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish statistics on the reporting of rape which identify the total number of accusations (a) treated as false accusations following an inquiry by the police; and (b) which are withdrawn by the accuser.

Answer: Such statistics are not collected as part of the recorded crime series and there are currently no plans to do. While there can be problems in ascertaining the number of false reports for any crime reported to the police, there is no evidence to suggest that a significant number of false allegations of rape are being made. Home Office Research Study 293, A Gap or a Chasm? Attrition in Reported Rape Cases published in 2005, which aimed to explore the issue of attrition in rape cases, also looked into the issue of false allegations. In-depth analysis of case files as part of the study indicated that approximately 3 per cent of cases reported to the police were false allegations. None of these cases got beyond the investigative stage of the criminal justice process. A copy of the research study is available at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hors293.pdf.

Secondary information