Disapply 12-month limit for CSA police complaints
IICSA · Interim Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · Issued 25 April 2018 · Addressed to: National Police Chiefs Council
Government responseUK Government: Not applicable (Dec 2018)
DeliveryNo statement from National Police Chiefs Council found
Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, C
The Chair and Panel recommend that the National Police Chiefs' Council ensures that complaints relating to child sexual abuse are no longer 'disapplied' by police forces on the grounds that the incident involved took place more than 12 months before the complaint was submitted.
IICSA, Interim Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · 25 Apr 2018 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
AI-generated evidence summary
The recommendation asks police forces not to disapply child sexual abuse complaints after 12 months. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, summarising a response of January 2019 on a web page archived in October 2022, reported that National Police Chiefs' Council lead Chief Constable Craig Guildford advised chief officers to change their approach, and that statutory guidance issued by the Independent Office of Police Conduct in February 2020 omitted disapplication (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Oct 2022). Earlier, in December 2018, HM Government stated that the recommendation was directed to the council, which had responded separately (HM Government response, Dec 2018).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 2 Oct 2026.
Government response
●UK Government · Not applicable · 20 Dec 2018
62. This recommendation is directed at the National Police Chiefs’ Council which has responded separately to the Inquiry.
Extract from: Government response to the interim report of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse: HC 945-I (accessible version)
Delivery
No statement on delivery from National Police Chiefs Council has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.
What other bodies have found
●Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · 6 Oct 2022
On 16 January 2019, Chief Constable Craig Guildford (National Police Chiefs Council lead for Complaints and Misconduct) advised all Chief Officers of the need to change their approach to disapplication as it was inconsistent with the cotemporary policing approach to non-recent child sexual abuse reports. On 1 February 2020 The Independent Office of Police Conduct published its new statutory guidance on the police complaints system. The statutory guidance no longer includes a chapter on disapplication to reflect the Inquiry’s recommendation.
How this page is built
The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.