FOI 920/25

Request

1. The number of rape and sexual offences recorded in the past three years? (Broken down by financial years 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25)

1a) Can these be broken down by type of sexual offence and by age group of victim? (Broken down by the same years as above)

1b) Of those, how many people were charged? (Broken down by the same years as above)

1c) Can this be broken down by location (where the offence took place)? (Broken down by the same years as above)

Response

A search has been conducted using our record Management System (Niche RMS) for all crimes recorded under ONS groups: ‘Rape’, ‘Other Sexual Offences’ and ‘Other Serious Sexual Offences’ for the time frames specified.

Please also note that the data has been retrieved by searching on the ‘Crime Date’ and not the ‘Reported Date’. Therefore, these figures relate to occurrences that were recorded as a crime between 1^st April 2022 and the 31^st March 2023, 1^st April 2023 and the 31^st March 2024,  1^st April 2024 and the 31^st March 2025 and not when the occurrences were first reported.

Question 1

Questions 1a & 1c

Please see attached document entitled ‘Response Data 920_25

Question 1b

A search has been conducted using our record Management System (Niche RMS) for all crimes recorded under ONS groups: ‘Rape’, ‘Other Sexual Offences’ and ‘Other Serious Sexual Offences’ where the outcome resulted in a charge during the requested time frames.

Please note that a substantial number of reports will not yet have an outcome as they are still under investigation.

Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete however please note that the detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes, and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations, and this should be taken into account when those data are used for any further statistical, analytical or evaluative purposes.

Every report of a rape or other sexual offence is taken at face value and recorded on the force recording crime system, irrespective of the source of the report. This includes reports made by third parties, through partnership working or from other agencies. In addition, some victims do not support police action in terms of engagement in the judicial process, however a referral will still be made to partner agencies to ensure that a victim receives support.

Staff who deal with cases of this nature undertake a comprehensive training and accreditation process to ensure a professional investigation and the best outcome for victims.

South Wales Police continues to prioritise its response to allegations of sexual offences and actively encourages victims to have confidence in reporting these crimes. Our focus, together with our partner agencies is firmly on victim’s needs and improving outcomes whilst increasing the number of offenders brought to justice. South Wales Police have dedicated rape investigation teams, consisting of 114 staff through the force. South Wales Police were a pathfinder force for Operation Soteria and we remain committed to embedding the national operating model to improve our service to victims and judicial outcomes for suspects.