The average duration of Charity Commission statutory inquiries which ended in 2011/12 was 715 days, twice as long as those closed in 2008/09.

Statutory inquiries that closed in 2008/09 had been open for an average of 358 days, but this duration crept up the next year to 395 days, and in the past two years has increased sharply to 715 days. 

The number of statutory inquiries closed annually during that time period has decreased from 21 to nine, while the number of statutory inquiries opened annually has dropped from 19 to 12. The number of non-statutory inquiries opened has also dropped sharply from 168 to 54, and the number closed annually has dropped from 188 to 85. 

A spokeswoman for the Commission advised that the main reason for the increase in duration for completing statutory inquiries was that "cases we closed in 2011/12 included several very complex cases, which involved interventions by other regulators and law enforcement agencies".

"We always aim to conclude cases as quickly as possible but the timescales will vary depending on the complexity of each case," she said.

This explanation appeared to be at odds with the Commission's own figures in its recently-published Back on Track report, which states that none of the statutory inquiries which closed in 2011/12 had significant involvement from other regulators.

The "Number of statutory inquiries closed which had significant involvement from other regulators" was zero, it states.

However, responding to civilsociety.co.uk's enquiry about this discrepancy, the spokeswoman advised that this figure relates to the number of statutory investigations which had to be halted during the investigation due to the involvement of regulators, such as the police.

While none fell into this bracket, she said, a number of statutory inquiries that closed in 2011/12 did involve other regulators, and were complex, she asserted.