My Marketing Specialist friend (July 2016, 2 applicants, LR, DE) was finally given a bit of an update yesterday from immigration - they were told that as they've only just finished processing April 2016 applications, it's probably going to be another couple of months until their application is looked at. Either they're saying this to manage expectations (i.e. to underpromise and overdeliver), or it's true they've literally left the older applications behind while they process the newer ones.
It's been 20 MONTHS!