Police super-complaint submitted in relation to severely delayed police investigations into sexual offences

[IwantToRetire]

Soaring police delays have left over 37,000 survivors of sexual offences waiting for more than three years for their cases to be investigated, over the last decade, according to survivor organisations launching a rare type of action against policing today. More than half of these investigations have taken longer than four years; and many considerably longer.

The super-complaint, submitted by Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre (CRCC), Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ), Rape Crisis England & Wales (RCEW) and Bindmans LLP, comes at a time of unprecedented delays and challenges across the criminal justice system, particularly in sexual offences cases. They say that the situation of very lengthy investigations into sexual offences has become inhumane and untenable for many survivors. It is also leaving police forces legally liable for their failure to properly progress cases, as the excessive delays in investigations may, in many cases, breach the UK’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The super-complaints system is designed to identify and address systemic issues in policing and allows organisations to raise issues on behalf of the public about patterns or practices in policing that they believe are causing significant harm.

Full press release https://rapecrisis.org.uk/news/police-super-complaint-submitted-in-relation-to-severely-delayed-police-investigations-into-sexual-offences/

i Hope they investigate it properly.

This sounds like a good step to increase pressure. Anyone familiar with how effective super-complaints are? Not sure I’ve heard of them before.

Welcome and much needed.

I read an article a few days ago about how long these things take to come to trial. Apparently, rape trials are 'floating', I think that was the word used. So they can be moved to accommodate the court. Presumably why they get rescheduled so often.

It’s not rape trials specifically that are being listed as floaters.

For each court in use, there will be one trial listed and one or sometimes two ‘floaters’ listed for the same or slightly less time. One day, all three trials will turn up.

This means that if the first trial ‘goes off’ either because of an early plea, the trial breaks down or the million and one other reasons a trial doesn’t go ahead, a floater can be slotted in immediately.

Unfortunatly rape cases that are floaters may not get court time as they are likely to need the full time so if the other case goes off mid way through, they won’t get sufficient time to be heard.

while this system is designed to take most efficient use of court/judges time. It fails to take into account the unique trauma experienced by SO victims turning up to court again and again and not having their case heard.

I hope the super complaint does make a difference. I can’t help feeling that allot of Sexual Offence Investigators have become complacent. A lot of such investigations take so long, because the OIC and supervisors expect them to take a long time, so when an investigation is 6 months old with little progress, there isn’t the concern that there should be.

I think the article I read was by or based on a woman who was experiencing this. So, possibly quoted her experience, even her misunderstanding of the situation she's found herself in. A friend told me the other day of a relative who two years after being raped is still waiting. In the interim she's seeing the man she's accused just going about his life and, of course, when she eventually sees her case get to court there's no guarantee she'll see him found guilty.

I agree about the complacency. I had to go for a mammogram the other day, just a routine scan. Previously there'd been a tiny room you got undressed in. This time there was a chair in the corner, no privacy. It shouldn't make much difference but I was a little nonplussed and the woman who scanned me seemed a little impatient. I told her this is just a days work for you but I'm finding this really embarrassing. We then got on much better. I think it's like that but a million times worse. For the Investigators this is a days work, nothing they haven't seen before. It's utterly, harrowingly different for the women (mostly) waiting and wanting, needing their help.

Glad the complaint is in. The amount of cases each detective has, it’s impossible for them to investigate them properly. It’s not fair on the officers and more importantly the victims.

Notes from Centre for Women's Justice on submitting the complaint:

Notes:
The super-complaint can be read here
To read the executive summary, click here

About the super-complaint

The super-complaint is being submitted on Monday 15 December 2025. The next step will be for the three super-complaint bodies to decide if it is eligible and then conduct their own investigation into the issues raised. If the super-complaint is upheld, they will make recommendations to address the problems highlighted.

The police super-complaints system is designed to identify and address systemic issues in policing. It allows organisations designated by the Home Office to raise issues on behalf of the public about patterns or practices in policing they believe are causing significant harm. Centre for Women’s Justice is a designated body.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), the College of Policing and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) (the decision-making authorities) are jointly responsible for responding to police super-complaints. They work together to respond to police super-complaints, to support their joint aim of promoting improvements in policing.

Further information can be found here.

Our data in the super-complaint

This super-complaint draws upon data obtained by Freedom of Information requests to the Home Office as well as survey research and focus groups with Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) and survivors across England and Wales to show the true scale of the problem and factors within policing that are contributing to the delays.

1. Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the Home Office

The super-complaint authors submitted an FOI request for data on sexual offence investigations over the past decade that took more than three years from report to outcome.

We also sent FOI requests to all police forces in England and Wales; 33 responded.

Key findings include:

In the past decade, more than 37,000 sexual offence investigations have dragged on for over three years — over half ran beyond four years, with many lasting far longer. We include a detailed example of one case that took over six years for the police to progress.

Police investigations into sexual offences taking more than three years have surged by over 652% in the past decade (533 cases in 2014/15, and 4,008 2024/25). This is more than a sixfold increase, and we have also seen a 15-fold increase for investigations lasting between three to four years (137 cases in 2014/15, and 2,261 cases in 2024/25).

There are underlying issues within policing contributing to excessive delays, such as the routine de-prioritisation of some sexual offence investigations; staffing and resourcing issues, failures of management and supervision, poor joint working with the CPS and changes to the law around bail.

1. Data from ISVA services

We sent a survey to 12 Rape Crisis centres providing Independent Sexual Violence Adviser (ISVA) services in England and Wales. The survey asked about police investigations lasting over three years and held two focus groups with eight experienced ISVAs and managers.

ISVAs are specialist support workers who help survivors navigate the criminal justice process.

While ISVA services do not routinely record investigation times or police outcomes, the information they provided reflects that ISVAs are aware of large numbers of sexual offence investigations lasting several years, and that these delays are acutely detrimental to the individuals they support.

Data was submitted by services across London, Brighton, Essex, Merseyside, Leeds, Gloucestershire, Darlington & County Durham, and Cambridgeshire, covering cases from 21 police forces.

London services in particular reported higher numbers of delayed investigations, but it is not possible to compare ISVA services directly due to differences in staffing and caseloads.

1. Results from survivors

We ran an online survey for survivors about sexual offence investigations lasting over three years. We received 75 responses covering 26 police forces across England and Wales.

Key findings:

More than two-thirds of survivors in delayed cases surveyed by the charities said they were not sure if they would report to the police for help again.

Significant delays in police investigations cause significant harm to those reporting, sometimes more than the impact of the original offence.

https://www.centreforwomensjustice.org.uk/news/2025/12/11/super-complaint-launched-over-excessively-lengthy-police-investigations-into-sexual-offences

I came across this, it must be the same thing, same solicitors

Bindmans and survivor organisations make super-complaint over lengthy police investigations | Law Gazette share.google/Bc9ZWFAoLKBAdOZYo

Yes, these are the groups that instigated it:

Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre,
Centre of Women’s Justice,
Rape Crisis England & Wales

https://rapecrisis.org.uk/news/police-super-complaint-submitted-in-relation-to-severely-delayed-police-investigations-into-sexual-offences/

It makes a change for CRCC to do something useful for women, as opposed to letting men staff the phones.

I saw the article was from 5 years ago so went to check on what they say currently.

In their equalilty and diversity statement the list the importance of women only (based on biological sex) serivces, and that they provide them, and quote the EA.

Then in the next paragraph, even though quoting the act, say the "women only" includes those who identify as women.

So two paragraphs one after each other contradict themselves.

We need to have some one do some sort of study about how the TRAs have managed to trans some women's brains.

https://cambridgerapecrisis.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Equality-Diversity-and-Inclusion-Policy-1.pdf

Was it Sex Matters who were going to challenge groups who chose to misunderstand.

Although we cant always leave SM to do everything.

What a shit show for a RCC. They are porbably hoping the the GLP win their cours case.