“The experience of the criminal justice system/police investigation has been so re-traumatising and has ruined my life.” (Survivor, investigation ongoing, five years and five months)
How bad are the delays?
We submitted a FOI (Freedom of Information request) to the Home Office.
The data showed that between 2014/15 and 2024/25:
- 37,188 sexual offence investigations have taken longer than three years to investigate
- 13,949 of these investigations were still ongoing at the end of March 2025.
- 23,239 were closed. Of these, more than half took over four years to investigate, and many significantly longer.
Long-running investigations have increased dramatically: a six-fold-fold and a 15-fold increase for cases lasting three to four years. See page 29 of the full report.
“I find it difficult to bring myself to explain the level of pure disappointment I feel towards the police. The police are supposed to be a body that protects citizens. The police have not just failed me, but many others. It is truly inhumane to put a victim through a process lasting nine years. I have been disappointed by the so-called justice system under which we are meant to feel safe”. AB, Survivor
Why are these delays happening?
We’ve identified five factors causing and contributing to excessively lengthy police investigations:
- Deprioritisation of certain cases
- Staff shortages and lack of resources
- Poor oversight, leadership and management
- Poor coordination between police and prosecutors
- Changes to bail rules before someone is charged, including the practice of ‘release under investigation’.
Our criminal justice system is broken.
Survivors of sexual violence and abuse deserve better.
In November, we published Living in Limbo, which sets out the scale of the Crown Court backlog and the delays experienced by sexual violence and abuse survivors awaiting trial. Combined with this new super-complaint regarding lengthy police investigations, the situation for survivors accessing the criminal justice system is bleak.
- Pre-charge, survivors of sexual violence and abuse are facing excessively lengthy waits for trial, as set out above.
- 58% of adult rape survivors alone withdraw their support for a case before a police investigation has concluded, many citing the delays
- For those who continue to engage with the police, very few will see their perpetrator charged. Around 8% of investigations into adult rape result in a charge.
- Post-charge, delays continue. There are currently over 13,000 sexual offence cases awaiting trial in the Crown Court backlog - a 66% increase in less than 3 years.
- Adult survivors of rape are made to wait far longer for their day in court compared to people who have experienced other crimes – 499 days on average, compared to 284 days on average for other crime types. Living in Limbo shows us that often the wait is much longer.
- 1 in 3 rape trials are postponed at least once.
- Post-charge 18% of adult cases that are stopped are stopped because the survivor no longer supports the prosecution. Many cite the court delays.
- It is estimated that only 85% of survivors report to the police. In 2024/25, there were 71,540 rapes reported to the police (excluding all other sexual offences). In the same year, there were 2,623 convictions for rape.
How our super-complaint can bring justice to survivors
A police super-complaint is different and more powerful than a formal complaint to an individual police force or the Home Office, because it triggers a set of mandatory procedures that legally have to happen after it’s submitted, and is reviewed by official decision-making bodies.
Super-complaints lead to change because they:
- Cannot be ignored – once submitted, the super-complaint bodies are legally required to assess them.
- Must be replied to publicly – the super-complaint bodies must publish their findings and say what they plan to do about the problem
- Examine the bigger picture – super-complaints are focused on systemic issues in policing nationally, rather than individual police forces.
- Can lead to formal recommendations for change
- Have a time limit for investigation – which adds accountability
Find more information on the process here.
As part of our super-complaint, we’ve come up with 23 crucial recommendations for change, including:
- Sexual offence investigations that have lasted for 3+ years must be identified, reviewed and actively progressed by forces.
- Survivors must be kept informed and treated with care throughout investigations.
- Dedicated teams should be established to progress long-running sexual offences investigations.
- Suspects released under investigation must be properly risk-managed and monitored.
- Police and prosecutors must be held accountable for excessive delays
- Accurate data must be published regarding how long sexual offence investigations really take, so that we can monitor the situation and forces can be held accountable.
