Petition · past parliament

Amend Exclusionary Rape Law that excludes woman from committing rape

Closed 2,320 signatures

What the petition asks

The rape definition uses gendered language ‘he’ and excluding female perpetrators from the legal definition.This excludes victims of female perpetrators by excluding them from official statistics, research, and denies them equal justice and support since sexual assault carried a lesser sentence.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/part/1/crossheading/rape/section/1

This definition concerns penetration (penile emphasis) to the exclusion of envelopment (vaginal emphasis)

This breaks the Equality Act 2010, by indirect discrimination
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/equality-act-2010-guidance

Rape is “Forced to have sex against their will” yet a form of this is classed only as sexual assault, carrying a lesser sentence.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/part/1

Timeline

22 Sep 2016 Petition opened for signatures
22 Mar 2017 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 2,320
Status Closed
Opened 22 Sep 2016
Closed 22 Mar 2017

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.