CREATED BY CAITLIN BICKFORD
Home Office figures present an increase in the rate of initial charge and summons in England and Wales. The percentage increased from 2.8% for the year ending March 2025 to 3.4% for the year ending March 2026 (Home Office, 2026b, Table 1.2). These statistics show a rise of 0.6 percentage points which comes alongside a decrease in offences with no assigned outcome at first publication. But, over a third of rape offences recorded within the most recent year had no assigned police outcome when the figures were originally published.
Comparing the first-published outcomes presents the changes throughout several categories of rape offences recorded within the years ending March 2025 and March 2026. Next to the rise in charge or summons outcomes, the share with no assigned outcome decreased from 41.1% to 34.5% (Home Office, 2026b, Table 1.2): representing a decrease of 6.6 percentage points. Simultaneously, the share assigned to the category with evidential difficulties alongside the victim not supporting action, rose 2.5 percentage points, an increase from 38.3% to 40.8% (Home Office, 2026b, Table 1.2).
The selected outcomes at first publication for rape offences recorded in the years ending March 2025 and March 2026 in England and Wales. Source: Home Office, Crime outcomes in England and Wales, 2026b Table 1.2.
The figures from The Home Office present how police classified the outcome, they give no specific detail or personal information about why an individual did not support further action.
What changed a year later?
The early percentages should not be treated as the final results which is shown through the analysis of the Home Office’s published tables. The rape offences that were recorded in the year ending March 2025 has a percentage increase of the charge or summons: from 2.8% in July 2025 to 5.2% in July 2026 (Home Office, 2026, Table 1.5c). The updates show how the report outcomes have developed over a year instead of comparing one set of data to separate groups of offences recorded from a different year.
For the rape offences that were recorded within the year ending March 2025, those still awaiting an outcome from the police had a decrease of 26.4 percentage points: from 41.1% in July 2025 to 14.7% in July 2026 (Home Office, 2026b, Table 1.5c). During this period, there was a rise of 2.4 percentage points for the share assigned a charge or summons. This increase was much smaller than the 26.4 percentage point decrease in the share awaiting an outcome. This further shows the updates also recorded a rise in other police outcomes.
For example, the distribution of those offences recorded within the evidential difficulties where the victim did not support further action category, increased from 38.3% in July 2025 to 50.5% in July 2026 (Home Office, 2026b, Table 1.5c).
The bar chart shows a comparison between the outcomes first published for offences recorded in two separate years: the July 2026 update presents what had altered after a year for the same group of offences recorded in the year ending March 2025.
How long did it take to reach a charge or summons?
For rape offences assigned the category of charge or summons within the year ending March 2026, the median time from police recording the offence to assigning the outcome was 438 days (Home Office, 2026a). The Home Office shows that this was up from 434 days the year prior. The calculation can include offences that the police recorded in previous years.
This distinction is vital when reading the median figure: an offence recorded towards the end of March would have had limited time to reach an outcome by the time the first figures were recorded. Updates later on provide those investigations time to show within the assigned outcome figures.
The figures in this data address police-recorded offences in England and Wales where a charge or summons labels a stage in the criminal justice process and any convictions later on are recorded and marked separately. Even a year later of updates, roughly one in seven rape offences (Home Office, 2026b, Table 1.5c) nevertheless had no assigned police outcome from the year ending March 2025 to the July 2026 figures.