Almost 900 sexual offences were committed between 2020 and 2022 by people on bail, according to statistics from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
A Freedom of Information request by Sky News found the figure totalled 887 for the three years and had risen annually, with 184 offences committed in 2020, increasing to 326 in 2021 and 377 in 2022.
Sky News was refused the data for 2023 ahead of broader crime statistics being published on Thursday morning, and has now been told to submit another FOI request to access the information – meaning at least 20 days until the figures are revealed.
However, the trend indicates the number of offences is likely to have tipped over the 1,000 mark for the four-year period.
Charities and legal professionals warned the numbers were a “disastrous consequence” of a “broken” court system, which is seeing those on bail facing record delays before their cases are heard, putting them “at risk of reoffending for extended periods”.
The statistics come after claims defendants deemed “lower risk” could be released on police bail without a court hearing as part of emergency measures triggered on Wednesday to tackle prison overcrowding – with hundreds of bail hearings being delayed in case the defendant is placed on remand but has no prison cell to go to.
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An MoJ source told Sky News it would be a decision for the police if they chose to release someone, not an order from the department.
But with police cells being used to house prisoners in overcrowded areas – another emergency procedure triggered last week – there could be pressure to make room.
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The chief executive of The Survivors Trust – a national organisation helping rape and sexual abuse support services – said people who had been attacked by those on bail felt “let down” by the government.
“There can be a lot of fear exactly around that happening,” Fay Maxted told Sky News. “Many, many survivors [of sexual offences and other crimes] report them because they want to protect others.
“They’re not driven by revenge or anything, but they are wanting to make things better and hoping to make the community a safer place.
“So it’s devastating to then find that actually the person that you made the report about is out and about and in the community.”
Ms Maxted laid much of the blame at the door of delays in the court system, leaving people on bail for longer, and “creating a lot of disastrous consequences”.
“People can be questioned and then released on bail, and it might be a year, it might be two years before they appear in court,” she said. “It’s really unacceptable. We’ve got a broken system at the moment.
“And I’m not always sure that everyone appreciates the impact of sexual violence and abuse – the potentially lifelong impact on someone’s health and well-being.”
The charity chief’s concerns were backed up by the Criminal Bar Association, who said the figures showed “a systemic failure” of government to fix court delays.
Analysis from the organisation used the average time for a rape trial with a bailed defendant to conclude after charge as an example – saying it had risen 80% in five years to around 18 months, with many court dates now being fixed in summer 2026 for charges made last year or early in 2024.
Image: Case backlog in crown courts since 2010
Chair of the CBA, Tana Adkin KC, told Sky News: “The number of sexual offences committed by those on bail for previous untried offences more than doubled between 2020 and 2022.
“This indicates a systemic failure to deliver on a core government duty to protect all citizens from harm.”
She pointed to a lack of investment in the criminal barristers required to prosecute and defend cases saying, without it, charges could not be “swiftly tried” in court and there would be “dire consequences for the innocent unable to clear their name and the culpable at risk of reoffending on bail for extended periods”.
Ms Adkin added: “Years of underfunding in the criminal justice professionals tasked with ensuring offences once charged are litigated has real-life consequences for defendants, witnesses, complainants and victims as well as their families, all caught up in the historic delays in our criminal courts.”
Image: Chair of the Criminal Bar Association Tana Adkin KC
The Survivors Trust is calling for sexual offences to be tried in a court with a panel of judges and lay-people advisers to help victims through the process, as well as speed it up – and Ms Maxted believes this would also cut down the number of offences committed while people are on bail.
“You wouldn’t want a situation where there are unfair trials,” she said. “There has got to be a process where everyone is able to present their case.
“But at the moment we are leaving victims vulnerable and then leaving communities vulnerable and the statistics are proving this.
“If someone’s already been arrested and then released on bail and then they re-offended, how much more do they have to do to prove that they are a danger in the community?”
The MoJ statistics revealed through Sky News’s Freedom of Information request also showed 7,693 offences of violence against a person – ranging from assault to murder – were committed between 2020 and 2022 by someone who was on bail.
And there were a further 17,243 theft offences, along with 1,137 robbery offences, and 411 incidents of criminal damage and arson.
The figures will come as an embarrassment to a department already under pressure over its handling of not just the courts system, but the prison service as well.
As well as the changes to bail hearings mentioned above, ministers have issued orders that prisoners serving sentences of less than four years be freed up to 70 days early from this month, among predictions male institutions could be full by June.
During Prime Minister’s Questions, Rishi Sunak said no one would be released “if they were deemed a threat to the public” or had committed a “serious offence”.
But Labour accused him of “misleading” the Commons, pointing to fresh reports from the chief inspector of prisons that some prisoners who had already been let out were a “risk to children” and had a “history of stalking, domestic abuse, and being subject to a restraining order”.
Sky News has approached the Ministry of Justice for comment.
Sir Keir Starmer remains under pressure over the collapse of a trial into alleged Chinese spies after witness statements revealed the government’s deputy national security adviser had warned of significant espionage in the UK.
Ex-parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash, 30, and teacher Christopher Berry, 33, were charged last year with passing politically sensitive information to a Chinese agent between December 2021 and February 2023.
The PM has sought to blame the previous Tory government’s stance on China for the spying trial collapsing.
Sky News chief political correspondent Jon Craigsaid Sir Keir “will hope he’s got off the hook” by publishing the statements, but the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats say “they beg more questions than they answer”.
So what do the witness statements say?
In the first, from December 2023, Mr Collins said “large scale espionage” was being carried out against Britain.
A second, from February 2025, said Chinese spying threatened the economy.
In the documents, it was also revealed information about internal Tory politics – when the party was in government – was being fed to a Chinese intelligence handler known as “Alex”, according to counterterrorism command SO15.
This includes Mr Cash working as a researcher and “contributing to policy advice being provided to Rishi Sunak”.
The evidence adds: “It is axiomatic that this is prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK for the Chinese state to have indirect access to one of the individuals providing policy advice to the now prime minister on China, with the potential to influence that advice.”
In the most recent third document from Mr Collins, dated 4 August, he said the Chinese intelligence services remain “highly capable and conduct large scale espionage operations against the UK”.
But he also quotes the Labour manifesto from last year’s election, saying: “It is important for me to emphasise, however, that the UK government is committed to pursuing a positive relationship with China to strengthen understanding, cooperation and stability.
“The government’s position is that we will co-operate where we can; compete where we need to; and challenge where we must, including on issues of national security.”
Sir Keir had suggested the “substantive” evidence in the case was submitted under the Tories, while supplementary statements given also reflected the previous government’s position.
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3:07
What does China spy row involve?
Director of public prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said the evidence required from the government in the alleged spying case related to whether China could be considered an “enemy” under the Official Secrets Act.
None of the statements use that word.
‘Completely devoid of context’
Mr Cash and Mr Berry were both charged under the secrets act.
In a statement after the government published the statements, Mr Cash reiterated he was “completely innocent” and attacked his “trial by media”.
The collapse of the trial, meaning he can’t prove his innocence, has put him in an “impossible position”, he said.
“At no point did I intentionally assist Chinese intelligence,” he added.
Mr Cash described the statements as “completely devoid of the context that would have been given at trial”.
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3:29
China spy case: ‘What is the point in having a lawyer as PM?’
‘Yet more unanswered questions’
Sir Keir had previously said the government would not publish the evidence as it would not have been allowed by the CPS – before the CPS then denied this was the case.
Stephen Parkinson, the head of the CPS, said in a statement the prosecution was dropped after attempts to get more evidence from the government “over many months” proved unfruitful.
The Liberal Democrats are calling for a statutory inquiry, with the party’s foreign affairs spokesperson saying the published statements “raise yet more unanswered questions”.
Calum Miller MP said: “Did emphasising the government’s desire for a positive relationship with China effectively cause this trial to collapse? What evidence was the CPS requesting which the government failed to provide?
“And who was aware of these statements and the evidence being asked for both among ministers and in No 10?”
Sky’s Jon Craig said a number of Commons committees are likely to open their own inquiries into the case.
Rachel Reeves faces the prospect of another “groundhog day” unless next month’s budget goes further than plugging an estimated £22bn black hole in the public finances, according to a respected thinktank.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said there was a “strong case” for the chancellor to substantially increase the £10bn headroom she has previously given herself against her own debt rules, or risk further repeats of needing to restore the buffer in the years ahead.
It said Ms Reeves could bring the cost of servicing government debt down through ending constant chatter over the limited breathing space she has previously given herself, in uncertain times for the global economy.
The chancellor herself used an interview with Sky News this week to admit tax rises were being considered, and appeared to concede she was trapped in a “doom loom” of annual increases.
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1:38
Tax hikes possible, Reeves tells Sky News
What is the chancellor facing?
Speculation over the likely contents of the budget has been rife for months and intensified after U-turns by the government on planned welfare reforms and on winter fuel payments.
The Office for Budget Responsibility’s determination on the size of the black hole facing Ms Reeves could come in well above or below the IFS estimate of £22bn, which includes the restoration of the £10bn headroom but not the cost of any possible policy announcements such as the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap.
Economists broadly agree tax rises are inevitable, as borrowing more would be prohibitive given the bond market’s concerns about the UK’s fiscal position.
While there has been talk of new levies on bank profits and the wealthy, to name but a few rumours, the IFS analysis suggests the best way to raise the bulk of sufficient funds is by hiking income tax, rather than making the tax system even more complicated.
Earlier this week, it suggested reforms, such as to property taxes, could raise tens of billions of pounds.
But any move on income tax would mean breaking Labour’s manifesto pledge not to target the three main sources of revenue from income, employee national insurance contributions and VAT.
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1:17
Is Labour plotting a ‘wealth tax’?
She is particularly unlikely to raise VAT, as it would risk fanning the flames of inflation, already expected by the International Monetary Fund to run at the highest rate across the G7 this year and next.
Business argues it should be spared.
The chancellor’s first budget, which raised taxes by £40bn, has been blamed by the sector for raising costs in the economy since April via higher minimum pay and employer national insurance contributions.
They say the measures have dragged on employment, investment, and growth.
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9:43
The big issues facing the UK economy
‘A situation of her own making’
Analysis by Barclays, revealed within the IFS’s Green Budget, suggested inflation was on course to return to target by the middle of next year but that the UK’s jobless rate could top 5% from its current 4.8% level.
Ms Reeves, who has blamed the challenges she faces on past austerity, Brexit and a continuing drag from the mini-budget of the Liz Truss government in 2022, was urged by the IFS to not harm growth through budget measures.
IFS director Helen Miller said: “Last autumn, the chancellor confidently pronounced she wouldn’t be coming back with more tax rises; she almost certainly will.
“For Rachel Reeves, the budget will feel like groundhog day. This is, to a large extent, a situation of her own making.
“When choosing to operate her fiscal rules with such teeny tiny headroom, Ms Reeves would have known that run-of-the-mill forecast changes could easily blow her off course.”
Ms Miller said there was a “strong case for the chancellor to build more headroom against her fiscal rules”, adding: “Persistent uncertainty is damaging to the economic outlook.”
‘No return to austerity’
A Treasury spokesperson responded: “We won’t comment on speculation. The chancellor’s non-negotiable fiscal rules provide the stability needed to help to keep interest rates low while also prioritising investment to support long-term growth.
“We were the fastest-growing economy in the G7 in the first half of the year, but for too many people our economy feels stuck. They are working day in, day out without getting ahead.
“That needs to change, and that is why the chancellor will continue to relentlessly cut red tape, reform outdated planning rules, and invest in public infrastructure to boost growth – not return to austerity or decline.”
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