The government must support the victims of serious violent crime despite financial constraints following its spending review, Baroness Stern said last night.

The crossbench peer, who led the independent review into how rape complainants are treated by public bodies, said justice had to be balanced, and accorded equally to the perpetrators and victims of crime.

Giving the third annual Crown Prosecution Service lecture yesterday, a day after the outcome of the government’s spending review was announced, Stern said: ‘In the face of these financial constraints, we have to say serious violent crime must be the priority, and rape is one of the most serious violent crimes.

‘I am sure that as the cuts come, there will be a commitment to no reductions in investigating and prosecuting serious crime. That is the duty of any government and it will continue.’

But she added: ‘If there is to be justice, we have to ensure that there is a similar commitment to supporting the victims of serious crime.’

Stern said: ‘If the Sexual Assault Referral Centres are not rolled out across the country, if the grants for independent sexual violence advisers are not renewed, if rape crisis centres are closing up and down the country, the government will have failed to meet its obligations to a group of people who have been grievously harmed.’

‘I hope that message will be heard by all those in government making the decisions,’ she added.

Stern said justice must be accorded equally to the powerful and the powerless, to the blameless and those whose lives have not been faultless.

‘There must be no impunity for perpetrators, but justice must be balanced between the processes that lead to conviction and punishment, and mechanisms that meet the obligation to support and heal the victim and provide redress.’

The Stern Review, which reported in March this year, concluded that the policies in place for dealing with rape complaints were adequate, but there were failures to implement them.

It said the debate had focused too much on conviction rates, which were measured in a misleading way, and called for greater support for victims, suggesting that separate legal representation should be explored for victims, to counter the unfairness of the adversarial system felt by many.