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Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FOI/24/007429/V
Version Date: 06/01/2025
The total number of Offences across all affected cases, which couldn't be Prosecuted/Considered for Prosecution, as the Statute of Limitations (for affected Offences) had lapsed. Please may I clarify here, if there have been cases in which multiple Offences couldn't be Prosecuted/Considered for Prosecution (due to Statutory Time Limits lapsing), please might it be possible to get the total number of Offences which couldn't be proceeded with.
I understand Statutory Time Limits may lapse during initial investigations, or, whilst cases are being reconsidered under (Police and CPS) Victim's Right to Review schemes - Please may I request figures for the total number of cases (by year, if possible) which couldn't be Prosecuted/Considered for Prosecution, due to Statutory Time Limits lapsing (regardless of the stage at which STLs may have lapsed).
Please might it be possible to request this information for the last 20 years?
The Performance & Analysis Department have provided the following information.
Time Frame for data:
01/01/2015 - 09/12/2024
Data Source:
Force Crime Recording Systems Niche and UNIFI
Data Processing:
QlikSense report Crime and Outcomes filtered on
Include No Crimes: No
Notifiable Crime Only: No
Outcome Date: 01/04/2019 - 09/12/2024
Outcome: Prosecution Time Limit Expired
Data extracted to excel
QlikView report Crime Lists Specific Years filtered on
Outcome: PROSECUTION TIME LIMIT EXPIRED: SUSPECT IDENTIFIED
Data extracted to excel
Data sets combined and duplicates removed
Data filtered in excel for
Outcome Date: 01/01/2015 - 09/12/2024
Data Limitations:
The principal crime rule dictates the crime type recorded. This is determined by the Home Office Counting Rules.
On 15/11/2022 Devon and Cornwall Police transitioned to a new records management system. As part of this transition most non notifiable offences ceased to be recorded within the new RMS.
Please note that no information is held prior to 01/01/2015.
Data:
Year |
Count |
2015 |
227 |
2016 |
178 |
2017 |
356 |
2018 |
342 |
2019 |
396 |
2020 |
504 |
2021 |
542 |
2022 |
543 |
2023 |
845 |
2024 (up to 09/12/24) |
958 |
Total |
4891 |