Police face super-complaint in England and Wales over lengthy delays in sexual offence investigations

A super-complaint has been filed against police forces in England and Wales over years-long delays in investigating sexual offences.

More than 37,000 sexual offence investigations have taken longer than three years to conclude over the past decade, campaigners said.

Sexual offence cases taking more than three years to investigate have increased more than sevenfold over the past 10 years, from 533 in 2014-15 to 4,008 in 2024-25, according to freedom of information requests submitted by the organisations to the Home Office and police forces across England and Wales. At the end of March 2025, there were almost 14,000 investigations that had been open for more than three years, the organisations said.

Their research found that investigations lasting between three and four years had increased from 137 cases in 2014-15 to 2,261 cases in 2024-25.