Mr. Peter Whelan:

We have obviously mapped out our complaints. In January 2022, we had 1,138 investigations. That dropped, in January 2023, to 740. That dropped again, in January 2024, to 590. The reason for that is we have started to improve our business processes internally. We have prioritised what type of investigations need to go to the commission and we have delegated authorities through the organisation for lower-level cases. We have devolved decision-making and we set up some specialist units - a digital forensic unit and some specialist children interviewers - and we have had some small increase in investigators. That has allowed us to bring down the number of live investigations, despite the fact that the number of admissible complaints has increased. In 2022, we had 904, but in 2023, we had 962. We have had an increase in admissible complaints but a decrease in investigations.

We have also had a decrease in the median time to investigate. In our criminal cases, in 2022, the median was 366 days; and that has dropped to 224 in 2023. In our disciplinary cases, in 2022, we had a median of 320 days. That has dropped, in 2023, to 220 days.

Some 87% of our cases are now within two years.