A range of support is available for people who go to trial in rape cases. One of them is that people have the right to seek special measures that mean that they do not have to go to the court and give their evidence in public.

Some of the reforms that Sir John Gillen's review proposed have been implemented and are having a positive effect. Disclosure is obviously one of the areas that we wish to address, because we believe that some issues around disclosure have been negative. The seeking and use of victims' third-party material has also been a concern for victims' rights advocates. We ensure that victims are informed of the SOLA service and can self-refer to legal advice prior to making a report. Finally, the provision of remote evidence centres is hugely important to ensure that victims can give their evidence in safe and comfortable surroundings away from the court building. We have excluded the general public from the court room at trial, and we continue to implement other Gillen recommendations to reduce delay, improve training for front-line staff who deal with victims and improve achieving best evidence procedures and disclosure processes to help with the experience of victims of sexual crime.

The most powerful thing that we as an Assembly can do is not what we do to support the victims of crime but what we do to change our society so that people are less at risk of becoming victims of crime. I look forward to seeing the strategy for ending violence against women and girls being published soon in order that we can refocus on preventing victims being created rather than simply focusing on the supports that we can offer people once their life has been, often, irretrievably destroyed.