Transparency data

Statistics on timeliness and victim withdrawal rates for adult rape cases in the Service Justice System 2025

Updated 25 August 2026

This is the Ministry of Defence (MOD) delivering on its commitment to be open and accessible, delivering on its commitment to proactively publish and explain its data and statistics in order to aid understanding, prevent misinterpretation and assist analysis in the public domain. It is part of our commitment to comply with the Standards for the Public Use of Statistics, Data and Wider Analysis.

1. Introduction

These data have been published to provide statistics on the timeliness and victim withdrawal rates for adult rape cases dealt with within the Service Justice System (SJS) in 2025. These statistics differ from the one-off transparency release relating to Statistics on timeliness, victim withdrawal rates and conviction rates in adult-rape-flagged cases in the Service Justice System, as this release uses standard MOD methodology in counting rape cases.

2. Key Point Summary

• For cases concluded in 2025, the median length of time between report of an incident to the Service Police and referral to the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA) in adult rape investigations was 146 days.  17% of victims withdrew during this timeframe.

• For adult rape cases concluded by the SPA in 2025, the median length of time between the Service Police referral to the SPA and the SPA directing/not directing trial at the Court Martial was 87 days.

• For cases heard at the Court Martial in 2025, the median length of time between the SPA  directing trial at the Court Martial and verdict at the Court Martial was 175 days. No victims withdrew during this timeframe.

3. Using and interpreting the data in this report

These data have been published to provide statistics on the timeliness and victim withdrawal rates for adult rape cases dealt with within the Service Justice System (SJS) in 2025. The following guide summarises what you cannot do when interpreting the statistics in this report.

You cannot:

• Calculate a total pipeline or timeframe from report of an offence to outcome at Court Martial, as the contained figures relate to discrete cases handled by the Service Police, or Service Prosecuting Authority for a particular calendar year. Some cases may appear in both cohorts, but you cannot sum the days for a total pipeline length.

• Determine the reason victims withdraw their support, or how victims feel about the system.

• Reliably compare these figures to figures in the Criminal Justice System, as both have different processes, populations and counting methods, and this difference in profile may cause significant differences that are not due to the performance of each system.

• Use figures in this report to provide direct contextual information to support the Murder, Manslaughter and Sexual offences in the Service Justice System. While these statistics may relate to the offences reported and/or referred in the same time period, the statistics in this report relate to cases which may have been reported prior to 2025.

4.Timeliness of investigation and victim withdrawals

Service Police investigations

• For adult rape offence investigations concluded by the service police in 2025, the median time from the report to referral to the Service Prosecuting Authority was 146 days. 

• During the Service Police investigation, victims may withdraw their support and from the process. 17% of victims in adult rape cases that were concluded in 2025 withdrew from a Service Police investigation.

Sexual offences are investigated by the Defence Serious Crime Command (DSCC), who apply an Evidential Sufficiency Test (EST) to decide whether a case should be referred to the Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA) or discontinued by the DSCC. If a case is referred to the SPA, independent SPA prosecutors will then apply the “Full Code Test” to determine if the case can be directed for Court Martial.

Service Prosecuting Authority investigations

• For adult rape cases concluded by the SPA  in 2025, the median length of time between referral to the Service Prosecuting Authority and a decision to direct (or not direct) a charge at the Court Martial was 87 days. The median length of time between the SPA directing trial at the Court Martial and verdict at the Court Martial was 175 days.

• During the time between the SPA’s decision to direct trial and verdict at the Court Martial, no victims in rape cases withdrew from the case.

5. Quality and methodology considerations

• Figures presented are those cases which were: referred to the SPA by the Service Police in 2025; a charge was directed (or not directed) by the SPA in 2025; or where there was a Court Martial outcome in 2025. This means that the allegations, offending, report to the Service police or Service police investigation may have occurred prior to 2025.

• Medians have been used to calculate the length of time between events as it is not easily skewed in the case of outlier values and aligns with previous methodologies. It does not however give an indication of the range of the number of days the data covers.

When using the data the following considerations of quality should be made:

• These data are extracted from administrative data sources, and so reflect a summary of data as input to Service Police or Service Prosecuting Authority records. These records’ primary use is to assist in investigations and prosecutions, not statistical release. Analytical quality checks have been applied to ensure the data is as accurate as possible. This includes a line-by-line check by Service Police experts to confirm which offences investigations relate to, as well as their outcomes.

6. Glossary

Rape Cases: For Service Police figures, rape cases refer to cases where there is a reported offence or attempted offence contrary to Section 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.  For SPA and Court Martial statistics, it also includes non-recent offences of Rape and Buggery as defined by the Sexual Offences Act 1956.

Concluded investigations. For Service Police investigations timeliness, this data refers to where the investigations ends as the EST has been met, and the outcome is a referral to the SPA.

Concluded cases. For SPA cases, this data includes where the SPA either direct or do not direct a charge.

Victim withdrawal. For Service Police investigations, this data reflects the percentage of victims who withdrew from rape or attempted rape investigations that had a qualifying outcome in 2025, not just a referral to SPA. It therefore includes, for example, cases where  the victim disengages with the investigation and where the investigation was later transferred to Civilian Police.

Defence Serious Crime Command (DSCC):  The Defence Serious Crime Command (DSCC) became operational on 5th December 2022. The DSCC, is an independent, professional, and global Service Police force that has jurisdiction to investigate serious crime alleged to have been committed by persons subject to service law, both in the UK and overseas. The DSCC ensures that reports of serious crime are investigated independently from single service chains of command.

Evidential Sufficiency Test: A test used by service police to determine if there is sufficient evidence to charge a person with an offence if, were the evidence suggesting that the person committed the offence to be adduced in proceedings for the offence, the person could properly be convicted (section 116 Armed Forces Act 2006). If the Evidential Sufficiency Test is met, then the service police must refer the case to the SPA for their further action.

Full-code test: A test applied by the SPA which is substantially the same as that applied by the Crown Prosecution Service in The Code for Crown Prosecutors.  It has two stages: (i) the evidential stage; followed by (ii) the public interest stage.  There is an additional consideration in relation to the Service interest which the SPA must have regard to: generally speaking, the Service context of a case will make it more serious and favour a prosecution, as offending brings the Armed Forces into disrepute and may involve abuse of power structures.

Service Prosecuting Authority (SPA): The SPA comprises a mixture of civilian and military prosecutors, working under the delegated authority of the Director of Service Prosecutions (DSP) who is a senior civilian lawyer. The SPA reviews cases referred to it by the Service Police, determines whether a prosecution should follow applying the full-code test, and prosecutes appropriate cases at the Court Martial.  The DSP and the SPA act under the general superintendence of the Attorney General and remain fully independent of the military chain of command.