Rape and sexual assault (FOI ref: 1892A/25)
Request
1. In the time period 01 January 2024 up to 31 July 2025, how many (a) rape investigations, (b) sexual assault by penetration investigations and (c) sexual assault investigations were carried out by your force. Please provide the data per offence, e.g. 1 rape; 2 sexual assault by penetration; 3 sexual assaults.
2. What were the outcomes of the offences in question 1 above.
Response
“Rape and sexual assaults are some of the worst crimes that are committed. They leave a lifetime of hurt for survivors and their loved ones. They’re also some of the most challenging to investigate. This is reflected in the number of charges brought against suspects, across the UK.
We and other police forces know we’ve got to do more to get even more offenders brought to justice. Our partners in The Crown Prosecution Service recognise this too and we’re all working together to do better.
We record allegations of rape at the earliest opportunity before an investigation has been carried out. This can include third party reports where after further enquiries no offence is found to have occurred.
At the heart of this are the survivors and the organisations we work with to support them through a really difficult time.”
1. In the time period 01 January 2024 up to 31 July 2025, how many (a) rape investigations, (b) sexual assault by penetration investigations and (c) sexual assault investigations were carried out by your force.
Please see following table and note:
Rape - (Does not include Attempts)
Sexual Assault - penetration (Does not include Attempts, Does not include sexual activity offences)
Sexual Assault - no penetration (Does not include Attempts Does not include sexual activity offences)
Table 1. Count* of specified offences recorded 01 January 2024 to 31 July 2025:
|
Offence Type/Title |
Total |
|
Rape |
7,012 |
|
Sexual assault - penetration |
723 |
|
Sexual assault - no penetration |
4,790 |
|
Total |
12,525 |
* Data is correct as at 10 September 2025
2. What were the outcomes of the offences in question 1 above.
Table 2. Count of offences in Table 1 above by Outcome*:
|
Outcome Description |
Rape |
Sexual Assault - Penetration |
Sexual Assault - No Penetration |
Total |
|
Caution – Adult (Inc Conditional Caution) |
- |
1 |
9 |
10 |
|
Caution - Youth (Inc Conditional Caution) |
1 |
- |
2 |
3 |
|
Charge or Summons |
214 |
36 |
255 |
505 |
|
Community Resolution |
1 |
- |
22 |
23 |
|
Diversionary, educational or intervention activity, resulting from the crime report, has been undertaken and it is not in the public interest to take any further action |
1 |
- |
2 |
3 |
|
Evidential Difficulties - Victim Based - Named suspect not identified |
962 |
34 |
262 |
1,258 |
|
Further action will be taken by another body |
26 |
20 |
139 |
185 |
|
Investigation Complete: No suspect identified |
832 |
51 |
428 |
1,311 |
|
Named Suspect identified: evidential difficulties prevent further action(no victim support) |
3,205 |
306 |
2,091 |
5,602 |
|
Named Suspect identified: evidential difficulties prevent further action(victim support) |
629 |
120 |
1,114 |
1,863 |
|
Prosecution prevented – Named suspect identified but is below the age of criminal responsibility |
6 |
3 |
2 |
11 |
|
Prosecution prevented – Named suspect identified but is too ill (physical or mental health) to prosecute |
2 |
- |
6 |
8 |
|
Suspect Identified, but not in the public interest for police to investigate |
4 |
7 |
11 |
22 |
|
The Offender has Died (all offences) |
1 |
- |
3 |
4 |
|
Blank/Ongoing |
1,128 |
145 |
444 |
1,717 |
|
Total |
7,012 |
723 |
4,790 |
12,525 |
* Data is correct as at 10 September 2025
Please note that this data should be interpreted with caution. Comparing numbers of incidents/crimes can be misleading and does not necessarily indicate the likelihood of someone being a victim of crime. In addition, the number of incidents/crimes recorded in an area over a period of time can be influenced by a number of factors. Consequently statistics on incidents/crimes for one period may not necessarily be a good indicator of future incidents in that area.
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that this data has been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request may be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting the data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of data which has relevance to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.