A Ministry of Justice pilot gave rape and sexual offence victims free transcripts of their sentencing. Its own survey found under half felt it helped them cope, and the same right for every victim is still switched off.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
In short. The Ministry of Justice's guidance page for its free transcript pilot states plainly: "A pilot providing free sentencing remarks transcripts helped victims of rape and sexual offences access and understand sentencing decisions" [1]. The policy summary of outcomes published the same day shows a narrower picture: of the 50 victims who answered its survey, 23 said the transcript helped them cope and build resilience, 20 felt sufficiently supported by it, and 11 said it made them more likely to report a crime in future [2]. The same summary never mentions that Parliament already legislated a free transcript for every Crown Court victim, in January 2026, and that right still has not been switched on. Two documented mistakes: four stars.
A government evaluation that publishes its own weaker numbers alongside its headline claim is, in one sense, doing the job properly: nothing here is hidden. The problem sits one level up, in what the headline claim does with those numbers, and in what the document leaves out about where this pilot was always supposed to lead.
What the pilot measured
Between May 2024 and May 2025, HM Courts and Tribunals Service ran a pilot allowing victims of rape and sexual offences to request a free transcript of the judge's sentencing remarks in their case, cases ordinarily heard in the Crown Court [2]. It received 585 applications and issued 345 transcripts; around 40% of applications were ineligible, mostly because the sentencing hearing predated 2012, when reliable recordings begin, the offence fell outside the pilot's scope, or the applicant was not the victim or someone applying on their behalf [2].
HMCTS then ran a voluntary online survey of people who had used the scheme. Sixty-nine responses were analysed: 50 directly from victims, 19 from third parties such as Independent Sexual Violence Advisers and family members [2]. That is roughly one response for every five transcripts issued, and the policy summary sets out exactly how the sample was built, including a footnote explaining that 21 of the original 101 responses were dropped for having fewer than half the survey questions answered. On that count, the document is transparent about its own limits.
The numbers behind "helped"
On one measure, the guidance page's claim holds up well: 38 of the 44 victim respondents who answered the relevant question said they found the sentencing remarks easy to understand [2]. That is the "understand" half of the claim.
The "helped" half is thinner. Asked whether the transcript had a positive impact on their ability to cope and build resilience, 23 of 50 victim respondents agreed or strongly agreed; 13 neither agreed nor disagreed and 7 disagreed [2]. Asked whether they felt sufficiently supported and prepared when they read it, 20 of 50 said yes, 9 said no and 10 were unsure. Asked whether the experience made them more likely to report a crime in future, 11 of 50 said yes and 25, half the group, said it made no difference [2]. The policy summary states none of this as a shortfall, and sets no threshold anywhere in the document for what a successful outcome would have looked like. A reader is left to decide for themselves whether 46%, 40% and 22% describe a pilot that "helped."
The right the summary does not mention
The rape and sexual offences pilot was never meant to be the end state, and Parliament had already moved past it by the time this summary was published. Section 22 of the Sentencing Act 2026, which received royal assent on 22 January 2026, gives every victim, not just victims of rape and sexual offences, a statutory right to a free transcript of their case's sentencing remarks: "the Secretary of State must supply the transcript to V, or arrange for the transcript to be supplied to V... free of charge" [3]. Eight and a half months on, that duty is not in force. Section 49 of the same Act brings into force, at royal assent, only the power to make the regulations the duty depends on, "so far as it confers power to make regulations... or is otherwise necessary for enabling the exercise of such a power" [4], and legislation.gov.uk's own commencement record for section 22 lists only that limited start, "in force at Royal Assent for specified purposes" [3]. None of the seven Sentencing Act 2026 commencement instruments made so far in 2026, most recently S.I. 2026/953, made 1 September 2026, mentions section 22 [5]. A victim outside the rape and sexual offences pilot who asks for their transcript today has no statutory right to get one free, and the policy summary evaluating the scheme that right was meant to replace does not say so.
Credit where due
The summary does not inflate its own numbers or suppress the unflattering ones. It reports the 7-in-50 who disagreed that the transcript helped them cope, the 9-in-50 who did not feel supported, and the 25-in-50 for whom it changed nothing, in the same document as the positive quotes. The failure here is a conclusion that outruns the data it sits beside, not a document hiding its data.
The claims, tested
| The document's own words | What the record shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| "A pilot providing free sentencing remarks transcripts helped victims of rape and sexual offences access and understand sentencing decisions" [1] | Of 50 victims surveyed, 23 said it helped them cope, 20 felt supported by it and 11 said it made them more likely to report a future crime; the document sets no threshold for what counts as "helped" [2] | Supported for "understand" (38 of 44); thinly supported, by its own figures, for "helped" |
| The policy summary reports pilot outcomes with no reference to what replaces the pilot [2] | Section 22 of the Sentencing Act 2026 already entitles every Crown Court victim to a free transcript; eight and a half months after royal assent, the operative duty remains uncommenced [3] [4] [5] | A material fact about where this scheme leads is missing from the document reporting on it |
The star score counts two documented mistakes: the guidance page's claim that the pilot "helped" victims, tested against the policy summary's own survey breakdown, where under half of the 50 victim respondents reported the coping, support and reporting-likelihood benefits implied by that word, from a sample covering one in five of the transcripts issued, with no stated success threshold anywhere in the document; and the summary's silence on section 22 of the Sentencing Act 2026, which already gives every Crown Court victim the same free-transcript right in statute and which, checked directly against legislation.gov.uk's commencement record for that section and against the text of all seven Sentencing Act 2026 commencement regulations made so far in 2026 (S.I. 2026/86, 217, 402, 609, 772, 948 and 953), has not had its operative duty switched on. Two mistakes in the 1 to 3 band: four stars; the bands are on the ratings page. This piece makes no finding that the pilot itself was poorly run, that HMCTS mishandled any individual application, or that the survey was dishonestly conducted; the document discloses its own sampling limits in detail. Checked directly against the Ministry of Justice's guidance page and policy summary, both published 6 October 2026, sections 22 and 49 of the Sentencing Act 2026 on legislation.gov.uk, and the text of all seven Sentencing Act 2026 commencement regulations (all fetched 6 October 2026).
Sources
- Transcript pilot for victims of rape and sexual offences, Ministry of Justice, published 6 October 2026
- Policy summary of the outcomes of the free sentencing remarks transcript pilot for victims of rape and sexual offences, Ministry of Justice, published 6 October 2026
- Sentencing Act 2026, section 22, legislation.gov.uk
- Sentencing Act 2026, section 49, legislation.gov.uk
- The Sentencing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 6 and Revocation) Regulations 2026, S.I. 2026/953, made 1 September 2026
- The Sentencing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 5) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, S.I. 2026/948
- The Sentencing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 5) Regulations 2026, S.I. 2026/772
- The Sentencing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 4) Regulations 2026, S.I. 2026/609, revoked
- The Sentencing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 3) Regulations 2026, S.I. 2026/402
- The Sentencing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2026, S.I. 2026/217
- The Sentencing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2026, S.I. 2026/86