Recommendation 3: Disapply 12-month limit for CSA police complaints
From Interim Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, published 25 April 2018.
Recommendation
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.
In brief (written by this site)
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. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
62. This recommendation is directed at the National Police Chiefs’ Council which has responded separately to the Inquiry.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from National Police Chiefs Council has been found in the sources searched (last checked 2 October 2026). This is separate from the response above.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (6 October 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.
From: Recommendations - Interim Report
Site note: These are the Inquiry's own words, from its recommendations page for the Interim Report, captured by the Internet Archive on 6 October 2022. They are the Inquiry's account of what the body told it, not the body's own words.
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- UK Government
Response - Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse
Finding