The report presents key statistics on activity in the criminal justice system for England and Wales. It provides information up to the year ending December 2019 with accompanying commentary, analysis and presentation of longer term trends.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused MoJ to have to change its data gathering, access and release practices, focusing efforts on priority analysis and statistics. Our statement explains this further and in particular, we are pausing access to the Police National Computer, to minimise non-essential travel by our analysts. In line with guidance from the Office for Statistics Regulation, the decision has been made to delay the publishing of cautions data and the offending histories chapter of this publication. We will keep users updated of any further changes via our published release calendar.

Statistician’s comment

The number of defendants prosecuted has fallen over the last decade – and figures published today show a further slight decrease in 2019, though there were increases in some of the most serious offence groups, in particular violence. The increase in prosecutions and convictions for violence was driven by the legislation that introduced the new offence of ‘assaults on emergency workers’ from November 2018. The publication also shows that custody rates, which have risen over the last decade, fell slightly in the last year, in part because of the change in the offence mix – with a rise in the proportion of all sentences that were for offences which are less likely to result in a custodial sentence.

Although we often consider crimes to correlate with prosecutions, we would not expect prosecutions to move directly in line with the ONS published police recorded crime series, or Crime Survey for England and Wales as only those crimes that result in a charge are likely to flow into courts – in addition criminal court prosecutions cover a much broader range of offences than police recorded crime or the survey.

The period of data covered by this report covers calendar year 2019, so court activity will not have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We will consider how we can best cover this in future publications. In the meantime, HMCTS publish regular management information on court activity here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmcts-management-information.

Pre-release access

The bulletin is produced and handled by the ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff. Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons:

Ministry of Justice

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice; Minister of State for Prisons and Probation; 2 Parliamentary Under Secretary of States; Lords spokesperson; Principal Private Secretary; Deputy Principal Private Secretary; 3 Private Secretaries; 4 Assistant Private Secretaries; Permanent Secretary; Head of Permanent Secretary’s Office; Special Advisor; Head of News; 2 Deputy Heads of News; 2 Press Officers; Director, Family and Criminal Justice Policy; Director of Data and Analytical Services; Chief Statistician; Director General, Policy, Communications and Analysis Group; Deputy Director, Bail, Sentencing and Release Policy; Section Head, Criminal Court Policy; Director, Offender and Youth Justice Policy; Director, Offender and Youth Justice Policy; Statistician, Youth Justice Board; Data Analyst, Youth Justice Board; Head of Courts and Sentencing, Youth Justice Policy; Deputy Director, Crime; Crime Service Manager (Case Progression) - Courts and Tribunals Development; Deputy Director, Legal Operations - Courts & Tribunals Development Directorate; Head of Criminal Law policy; 6 Policy Advisors.

Home Office

Home Secretary; Private Secretary to the Home Secretary; Deputy Principal Private Secretary to the Home Secretary; Permanent Secretary, Home Office; Assistant Private Secretary to the Home Office Permanent Secretary; Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service; Assistant Private Secretary Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service; Director of Crime, Home Office; Head of Crime and Policing Statistics, Home Office.

The Judiciary

Lord Chief Justice; Private Secretary to the Lord Chief Justice; Head of Lord Chief Justice’s Criminal Justice Team; Lead for Criminal Justice for the Senior Judiciary.

Other

Principal Analyst (Justice), Cabinet Office

The reports present key statistics on activity in the criminal justice system for England and Wales. It provides information for the latest year (2018) with accompanying commentary, analysis and presentation of longer term trends.

An interactive Sankey diagram (a type of flow diagram, in which the width of the arrows is shown proportionally to the number each represents) presenting information on offending histories accompanies this bulletin.

https://moj-analytical-services.github.io/criminal_history_sankey/index.html">Offending histories

Pre-release access

The bulletin is produced and handled by the ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff. Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons:

Ministry of Justice

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice; Minister of State for Prisons and Probation; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Courts and Legal Aid; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Victims, Youth and Family Justice; Lords spokesperson – Ministry of Justice; Permanent Secretary; Principal Private Secretary; Deputy Principal Private Secretary; Private Secretary x5; Deputy Private Secretary; Assistant Private Secretary x3; 2 Special Advisers; 2 Press Officers; Director General, Policy, Communications & Analysis Group; Director, Data & Analytical Services Directorate; Chief Statistician; Director, Family and Criminal Justice Policy; Deputy Director, Bail, Sentencing and Release Policy; Section Head, Criminal Court Policy; Director, Offender and Youth Justice Policy; Section Head, Custodial Sentencing Policy; Head of Courts and Sentencing, Youth Justice Policy; Deputy Director - Crime; Crime Service Manager (Case Progression) - Courts and Tribunals Development; Head of Operational Performance; Deputy Director, Legal Operations - Courts & Tribunals Development Directorate; Policy Adviser x5; Statistician; Data Analyst x2.

Home Office

Home Secretary; Private Secretary to the Home Secretary; Deputy Principal Private Secretary to the Home Secretary; Assistant Private Secretary to the HO Permanent Secretary; Permanent Secretary, Home Office; Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service; Assistant Private Secretary Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service; Director of Crime, Home Office; Head of Crime and Policing Statistics, Home Office; Statistician - Recorded crime statistics.

The Judiciary

Lord Chief Justice; Head of the Criminal Justice Team.

Cabinet Office

Principal Analyst, Justice.

Department for Education (pre-release access limited to supplementary paper on Prolific Offenders):

Secretary of State for Education (and Private Secretary); Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families (and Private Secretary); Minister of State for School Standards (and Private Secretary); Special Advisers; Deputy Director, Data Group and Deputy Head of Profession for Statistics; Policy Official x9; Analyst x8; Press Officer x2.

This report has been developed as part of the consultation in late 2010 and early 2011 by the Ministry of Justice on ‘Improvements to Ministry of Justice Statistics’.

It consolidates information previously presented in the National Statistics publications -

• Criminal statistics (annual)
• Sentencing statistics (annual)
• Sentencing statistics (quarterly)
• Young people aged 10 to 17 receiving their first reprimand, warning or conviction
• Provisional quarterly criminal justice system information.

The report presents trends for the 12 months to March 2011 of activity in the criminal justice system (CJS) for England and Wales. For each process a brief description of the function is included with an explanation of some of the main procedures involved. More detailed analysis is published annually on the data for the complete calendar year.

The report is released by the Ministry of Justice and produced in accordance with arrangements provided by the UK Statistics Authority.

If you have any feedback, questions or requests for further information about this statistical bulletin, please direct them to the appropriate contact given at the end of the report.

Previous issues

http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/previous-stats/criminal-annual">Criminal Statistics; Sentencing statistics (http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/previous-stats/sentencing-annual">annual and http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/courts-and-sentencing/judicial-quarterly/judicial-quarterly-editions">quarterly ); http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/previous-stats/first-reprimand-warning-conviction">Young people aged 10-17 receiving their first reprimand, warning or conviction’ and http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/previous-stats/cjs">Provisional Quarterly Criminal Justice System Information

The bulletin is produced and handled by the ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff.

Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons:

Ministry of Justice: Secretary of State for Justice; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Criminal Justice; Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice Strategy; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice; Permanent Secretary; Special Adviser; Director General, Corporate Performance Group; Head of Sentencing Policy and Penalties Unit; Director, Criminal Law, Sentencing and Youth Policy; Director General, Corporate Performance Group; Deputy Director Neighbourhood Justice & Courts Policy; Head of Analytical Services; Head of Corporate Performance - Strategic Planning and Performance; Criminal Policy - Sentencing Policy and Penalties; Offender Management - Youth Justice Policy; Strategic Communications Advisor; Senior Policy Advisor: Criminal Policy - Better trials; two further policy advisors; Deputy Principal Private Secretary; Senior Press Officer; four further press officers; five private secretaries.

Home Office: Home Secretary; Permanent Secretary; press officer; Head of Recorded Crime Section; two private secretaries.

The Sentencing Council: Chairman of the Sentencing Council.

The Judiciary: Lord Chief Justice; Senior Presiding Judge.

The report presents key statistics on activity in the criminal justice system for England and Wales. It provides information up to the year ending March 2020 with accompanying commentary, analysis and presentation of longer term trends.

Please note that the decision has been made to delay the offending histories and out of court disposals components of this publication. In line with https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Regulatory-guidance_changing-methods_Coronavirus.pdf">guidance from the Office for Statistics Regulation, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused MoJ to have to change its data gathering, access and release practices, focusing efforts on priority analysis and statistics. In particular, we paused access to the Police National Computer, on which these components rely, to minimise non-essential travel by our analysts. We will keep users updated of any further changes via our published release calendar. We will be publishing a response to our February consultation on changes to the frequency and timing of the offending histories components, setting out when these will be published in the future.

Statistician’s comment:

The number of defendants prosecuted has fallen over the last decade and figures published today continue that trend, with a slight decrease in the year ending March 2020. The figures released today cover the period to the end of March 2020 and any COVID-19 impacts, for example on the level of prosecutions, are likely to be small. For more information about COVID-19 impacts on courts, see the HMCTS regular management information publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmcts-management-information.

There have been increases in prosecutions for some of the most serious offence groups in the latest year, in particular violence, drug offences, robbery and sexual offences. The increase in prosecutions and convictions for violence continue to be driven by the legislation that introduced the new offence of ‘assaults on emergency workers’ from November 2018, while the increases for other offences groups are driven by an increase in charges brought forward by the police.

The publication also shows the different pattern for custody rates across offences – with a continued increase in custody rates for the most serious, indictable, offences, alongside a reduction in rates for summary offences. Average custodial sentence lengths continue to rise and were the highest in a decade. Although we often consider crimes to correlate with prosecutions, we would not expect prosecutions to move directly in line with the ONS published police recorded crime series, or Crime Survey for England and Wales as only those crimes that result in a charge are likely to flow into courts – in addition criminal court prosecutions cover a much broader range of offences than police recorded crime or the survey.

Pre-release access

The bulletin is produced and handled by the ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff. Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons:

Ministry of Justice

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice; Minister of State for Prisons and Probation; 2 Parliamentary Under Secretary of States; Lords spokesperson; Principal Private Secretary; Deputy Principal Private Secretary; 3 Private Secretaries; 4 Assistant Private Secretaries; Permanent Secretary; Head of Permanent Secretary’s Office; Special Advisor; Head of News; 2 Deputy Heads of News; 3 Press Officers; Director, Family and Criminal Justice Policy; Director of Data and Analytical Services; Chief Statistician; Director General, Policy, Communications and Analysis Group; Deputy Director, Bail, Sentencing and Release Policy; Section Head, Criminal Court Policy; Director, Offender and Youth Justice Policy; Statistician, Youth Justice Board; Data Analyst, Youth Justice Board; Deputy Director, Crime; Crime Service Manager (Case Progression) - Courts and Tribunals Development; Deputy Director, Legal Operations - Courts & Tribunals Development Directorate; Head of Criminal Law policy; 2 Policy Managers – Youth Courts and Sentencing; 6 Policy Advisors; 2 Justice Statistics analysts; Head of Data Innovation, Analysis and Linking; Head of PNC/Offender Histories Analysis; Head of Criminal Courts Statistics.

Home Office

Home Secretary; Private Secretary to the Home Secretary; Deputy Principal Private Secretary to the Home Secretary; Permanent Secretary, Home Office; Assistant Private Secretary to the Home Office Permanent Secretary; Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service; Assistant Private Secretary Minister of State for Policing and the

The reports present key statistics on activity in the criminal justice system for England and Wales. It provides information for the latest 12 months (January 2013 to December 2013) with accompanying commentary, analysis and presentation of longer term trends.

Pre-release access

The bulletin is produced and handled by the ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff. Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons:

Ministry of Justice:

Secretary of State for Justice; Minister for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Minister for Prisons and Rehabilitation; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Minister for the Courts and Legal Aid; Minister of State; Permanent Secretary; two Special Advisers; two Director Generals, Corporate Performance Group; Director General, Criminal Justice Group; Director, Crime; Director, Analytical Services; Senior policy official, Criminal Law and Legal Policy; Senior policy official, Sentencing and Youth Policy; Policy official, Sentencing; Policy official, Out of court disposals; Policy official, Youth justice; Head of News; Senior Press Officer; two further press officers; two private secretaries; seven assistant private secretaries.

Home Office:

Home Secretary; Permanent Secretary; Director of Crime; two press officers; Chief Statistician; three private secretaries.

The Judiciary:

Lord Chief Justice; Chairman of the Sentencing Council; Head of the Office of the Sentencing Council.

Other:

Attorney General; Policy Official, Cabinet Office

Details

This report presents key statistics on activity in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) for England and Wales. It provides commentary for the 12-month period of July 2024 to June 2025 (referred to as the ‘latest year’). The contents of this bulletin will be of interest to government policy makers in the development of policy and their subsequent monitoring and evaluation. Others will be interested in the way different crimes are dealt with in the CJS and trends in sentencing outcomes.

Statistician’s comment

The volume of prosecutions and convictions reached their highest levels since year ending June 2018, reflecting the increased demand entering the criminal courts as police charge volumes increase.

The use of out of court disposals increased in the latest year, reversing a downward trend seen since 2020. This was due to the continued increase in community resolutions, which now account for around 80% of all out of court disposals in the latest year. All other out of court disposals reduced.

The number of prosecutions increased for all indictable offences groups over the last year and the pattern followed for convictions, with the number of offenders convicted for violence against the person and sexual offences reaching series highs since comparable records from 2010.

The number of offenders sentenced to immediate custody continued to increase and is at the highest level seen since 2018. The latest year shows a slight reduction in the average custodial sentence length, partly driven by an increase in the proportion of sentences that are for theft offences which attract shorter sentence lengths.

Changes and revisions in this publication

Magistrates’ court data development

Please note as part of our ongoing data development, since the previous publication, we have identified some duplicate records that led to an exaggerated number of withdrawn cases at magistrates’ courts. Following case-level reviews and close working with system owners we have removed the duplicates and resolved the issue in this release.

This has led to the removal of 3,563 in the withdrawn disposal defendant counts in 2024 – trends remain broadly unchanged.

In addition, we have identified potential data quality concerns regarding the published plea counts at the magistrates’ courts. While work is ongoing to investigate identified discontinuities we have removed the plea data from our published magistrates’ data tool.

Crown Court data development (“One Crown”)

MoJ and HMCTS have worked together on the https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fmedia%2F67e298ced4a1b0665b8ee1fe%2FConsultation_on_One_Crown_changes_to_the_Crown_Court_data_processing_in_CCSQ.docx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK">“One Crown” data project to create a single, consistent and flexible dataset that meets both MoJ and HMCTS needs. This has brought greater transparency, clarity and coherence for all users of the published Criminal Court Statistics series.

Historically the two MoJ published series concerning criminal courts have been produced independently from distinct pipelines which is inefficient and risks undermining transparency. Moving to the same data model will improve the coherence across MoJ, provide a clear set of shared definitions across the topic for users and ensure the data best reflects operational reality of the underlying administrative systems.

We postponed the August 2025 publication of CJSQ to start the necessary data development and carry out quality assurance of the One Crown outputs. Good progress has been made and we are continuing to quality assure the data and refine definitions to ensure that the new CJS data series are robust before we adopt the change.

The data presented here is in line with the historical data pipelines. We hope to move to the One Crown pipeline from January 2026 – we will set out and quantify the impact of changes to the data pipeline alongside clear reasons for any observed change.

This report presents key statistics on activity in the criminal justice system for England and Wales. It provides information up to the year ending September 2022 with accompanying commentary, analysis and presentation of longer-term trends.

Statistician’s comment:

The figures published today, for year ending September 2022, demonstrate the continued recovery of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) since the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the possible impact of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) action from April, which concluded in the autumn.

Prosecutions and convictions have increased in the latest year, however, they both remained below pre-pandemic levels. The increase in the latest year was driven by summary offences, while prosecutions for indictable offences decreased. For indictable offences, the only offence group to show an increase in prosecutions and convictions was sexual offences.

The custody rate for indictable offences has risen to levels seen pre-pandemic at 32% in the latest year, after a fall in the year ending September 2021. The average custodial sentence length (ACSL) for indictable offences has continued to rise from 24.0 months in the year ending September 2021 to 24.8 months in the latest year.

An error has been identified since the publication of this bulletin. This affects figures for ‘disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress’ and summary offences relating to sending offensive/threatening messages. For more information please refer to the erratum published on 8 December 2017.

The reports present key statistics on activity in the criminal justice system for England and Wales. It provides information for the latest year (2016) with accompanying commentary, analysis and presentation of longer term trends.

An https://moj-analytical-services.github.io/criminal_justice_statistics_sankey/">interactive Sankey diagram (a type of flow diagram, in which the width of the arrows is shown proportionally to the number each represents) presenting flows through the criminal justice system accompanies this bulletin.

Pre-release access

The bulletin is produced and handled by the ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff. Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons:

Ministry of Justice

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice; Minister of State for Courts and Justice; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Prisons and Probation; Parliamentary under Secretary of State and Minister for Victims, Youth and Family Justice; Lords spokesperson – Ministry of Justice; Permanent Secretary, Ministry for Justice; Director General Justice and Courts Policy Group; Director General Finance Group; Director General Offender Reform and Commissioning Group; Director of Analytical Services and Chief Economist; Executive Director of the Prison Estate Transformation Programme; Director Criminal Justice Policy; Director Offender and Youth Justice Policy; Deputy Director Sentencing Policy; Deputy Director Criminal Courts and Law; Deputy Director Criminal Court Policy and Community Interventions; Deputy Director Legal Operations - Courts & Tribunals Development Directorate; Deputy Director Crime; Chief Statistician; Head of Operational Performance; Crime Service Manager; Principal Private Secretary; Deputy Principal Private Secretary; 4 Private Secretaries; Deputy Private Secretary; 6 Assistant Private Secretaries; 2 Press Officers; 2 Special Advisors; 4 Policy Advisors.

Home Office

Home Secretary; Permanent Secretary, Home Office; Director of Crime, Home Office; Deputy Principal Private Secretary to the Home Secretary; Private Secretary to the Home Secretary; Assistant Private Secretary to the Home Office Permanent Secretary; Acting Head of Crime and Policing Statistics, Home Office.

The Judiciary

Lord Chief Justice; Head of the Criminal Justice Team for the Lord Chief Justice; Legal Advisor to the Lord Chief Justice; Assistant Private Secretary to the Lord Chief Justice

Other

Policy Official, Office of the Attorney General; Desk Officer, Cabinet Office.

Biennial statistics on the representation of sex groups as victims, suspects, defendants, offenders and employees in the Criminal Justice System.

These reports are released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

This report presents key statistics on activity in the criminal justice system for England and Wales. It provides information up to the year ending March 2022 with accompanying commentary, analysis and presentation of longer-term trends.

Statistician’s comment:

The figures published today, for year ending March 2022, continued to be influenced by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on criminal court prosecutions and outcomes. The Criminal Justice System (CJS) is continuing to recover - prosecutions have increased by 27% in the latest year but remain 14% lower compared to pre-pandemic levels. Convictions have also increased in the latest year, by 31%, though they are down by 13% since the year ending March 2020. While the number of people convicted for most offence groups have fallen over the last two years, they have risen for violence and sexual offences in each of the last two years.

The custody rate for indictable offences has fallen slightly in the latest year to 32%. However, for those serious cases resulting in custody, average custodial sentence length continues to increase to a high of 25.7 months for indictable offences. This has increased year-on-year (from 16.8 in 2012), with the only decrease in year ending March 2021 likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We’re running a consultation on proposed changes to the criminal justice statistics quarterly until 22 January 2015. Please feedback comments on your current use of the publication and the proposed changes.

This quarterly report presents key statistics on activity in the criminal justice system (CJS) for England and Wales. It provides information for the latest 12 months (July 2013 to June 2014) with accompanying commentary, analysis and presentation of longer term trends.

Key findings

• Number of individuals formally dealt with by the Criminal Justice System is lowest on record (1970 to date).
• The use of out of court disposals is now less than half of the peak, in year ending June 2007.
• Conviction ratio has remained relatively stable since year ending June 2009 (following on from an increase in the 5 years before this).
• Average custodial sentence length continues to increase since June 2006.
• Immediate custody rate for indictable offences is highest in the decade and has increased in each of the last 5 years.
• Number of first time entrants formally dealt with by the CJS continues to decline.
• 25% increase in adult offenders given suspended sentences despite having 15 or more previous cautions or convictions.
• Prosecutions for sexual offences are the highest in the decade and increased by 19% in the latest year, in line with recorded crime.

The bulletin is produced and handled by the ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff. Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons.

Ministry of Justice

Secretary of State for Justice; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Minister for Prisons, Probation and Rehabilitation; Minister of State for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Minister for the Courts and Legal Aid; Minister of State for Justice and Civil Liberties; Permanent Secretary; 2 special advisers; 2 Director Generals, Crime; Director, Analytical Services; Director, Sentencing and Rehabilitation; senior policy official, Sentencing and Youth Policy; policy official, Sentencing; policy official, Out of court disposals; policy official, Youth justice; Head of News; senior press officer; 3 further press officers; 2 private secretaries; 6 assistant private secretaries.

Home Office

Home Secretary; Permanent Secretary; Director of Crime; 1 press officer; Chief Statistician; 1 assistant private secretary

The Judiciary

Lord Chief Justice; Head of Lord Chief Justice’s Criminal Justice Team

Other

Attorney General; policy official

The areas of focus include: Victimisation, Police Activity, Defendants and Court Outcomes, Offender Management, Offender Characteristics, Offence Analysis, and Practitioners.

This is the latest biennial compendium of Statistics on Ethnicity and the Criminal Justice System and follows on from its sister publication Statistics on Women and the Criminal Justice System, 2019.

Earlier editions: Women in the criminal justice system 2009-10

Biennial statistics on the representation of females and males as victims, suspects, offenders and employees in the Criminal Justice System.

These reports are released by the Ministry of Justice and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Introduction

This report provides information about how females and males were represented in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in the most recent year for which data were available, and, wherever possible, across the last five years. Section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 requires the Government to publish statistical data to assess whether any discrimination exists in how the CJS treats people based on their gender.

These statistics are used by policy makers, the agencies who comprise the CJS and others (e.g. academics) to monitor differences between females and males, and to
highlight areas where practitioners and others may wish to undertake more in-depth analysis. The identification of differences should not be equated with discrimination as there are many reasons why apparent disparities may exist.

Specific findings

Women as victims of crime

The most recent data show differences in the level and types of victimisation between females and males. Key findings:

• The 2011/12 CSEW estimated three in every 100 adults were a victim of violent crime. As in previous years, a smaller proportion of women than men interviewed reported being victims of violence (2% versus 4% in the 2011/12 CSEW).
• The 2011/12 CSEW self-completion module on intimate violence showed that a greater proportion of women (7%) reported being victims of intimate violence than men (5%).
• Findings from the child component of the 2011/12 CSEW showed that, in the 12 months prior to interview, a smaller proportion of girls (aged 10 to 15) reported being victims of violence than boys (5% per cent versus 11%).
• Data from the Homicide Index showed that fewer females (201) than males (435) were victims of homicide in 2010/11. As in the previous four years, a greater proportion of female than male victims knew the principal suspect (78% and 57% respectively in 2010/11).

Women as suspects

Fewer than one in five arrests recorded by the police in 2010/11 and in the preceding four years involved females. Key findings:

• Between 2006/07 and 2010/11, there was an 8% reduction in the number of arrests by police forces in England and Wales (from 1,482,156 to 1,360,451). There was a 13% decrease for females and a 7% decrease for males.

Women as defendants

Data on out of court disposals and court proceedings showed some differences in the types of disposals issued to males and females, and also in sentence lengths.

These may relate to a range of factors including variations in the types of offences committed.

Key findings:

• In 2011, females accounted for 24% of the 127,530 PNDs and 24% of the 231,483 cautions administered to individuals of known gender. Retail theft (under £200) was the most common offence type for which females were issued a PND (54% of PNDs issued to females), and drunk and disorderly for males (31% of PNDs issued to males).
• Overall, 1,246,320 persons of known gender were convicted and sentenced at all courts in 2011; again 24% were female and 76% were male.
• Theft and handling stolen goods (which includes shoplifting) was the most common indictable offence group for which both females and males were sentenced at all courts between 2007 and 2011 (52% of females and 33% of males sentenced for indictable offences in 2011).
• Overall, a higher proportion of all males than all females were sentenced to immediate custody in 2011 (10% versus 3%), and females more commonly received a fine (77% versus 61% of males). These patterns were also consistent in the four preceding years.
• The average custodial sentence length (ACSL) for all indictable offences was consistently higher for males than for females between 2007 and 2011 (in 2011, 17.7 months for males compared to 11.6 months for females).

Women as offenders: under supervision or in custody

Across the five year period, there were substantially fewer women than men both under supervision and in prison custody. A greater proportion of women were also serving shorter sentences than men, which is again likely to be attributable to a range of factors including differences in the offence types committed by men and women. Key findings:

• In 20

This summary explains how the various criminal justice agencies deal with an defendant once identified, presents the recent trends on how the Criminal Justice System (CJS) response to offending is changing, and identifies factors that may be causing the changes, where identifiable.

The total number of individuals, which includes people and companies, who have been dealt with formally by the CJS in England and Wales, in either of these ways, has been declining since 2007, and is now at its lowest level since 1970. Police recorded crime peaked in 2003/04, and that recorded offences are now lower than at any time over the past decade.

The number of individuals dealt with formally by the CJS for the first time has also fallen since 2007. The reduction has been much sharper for juveniles, reflecting both a decreasing number of juvenile offenders reprimanded or issued with a warning and the decreasing numbers of juveniles found guilty in all courts. However, per head of population, the rate of juvenile first time entrants remains higher than for adults.

The use of cautions increased steadily during the 1970s and 1980s, before declining from 1993 until 2002. This decrease followed a circular issued to police forces in March 1994, which discouraged both multiple cautions and the use of cautions for the most serious offences.

From 2002, the use of out of court disposals increased rapidly and peaked in 2007, before decreasing year on year to 2012. The increase coincided with the introduction in 2001 of a target to increase offences brought to justice, and the decrease coincided with the replacement in April 2008 of the target with one placing more emphasis on bringing serious crimes to justice. The latter target was subsequently removed in May 2010.

All criminal cases in England and Wales start in a magistrates’ court. Criminal proceedings brought before the courts are divided into three main offence groups:

*Indictable proceedings, which cover the more serious offences such as violent and sexual offences and robbery, and tend to be passed on to the Crown Court, either for sentencing or for a full trial with a judge and jury; *Summary proceedings, which cover less serious offences, are almost always handled entirely in the magistrates’ courts, with the majority completed at the first hearing. They are split into two categories: *Summary non-motoring proceedings, such as TV license evasion and less serious criminal damage; and *Summary motoring proceedings, such as speeding and driving whilst disqualified.

The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts increased during the 1970s up to the mid 1980s, with a gradual increase in prosecutions in all three main offence groups. In 1987 however, prosecutions decreased due to a significant drop in summary motoring offences brought before magistrates. This was partly due to the introduction in October 1986 of the extended fixed penalty notice system, which increased the range of summary motoring offences which could be handled out of court, and partly due to the removal of the need to instigate criminal court proceedings to register fines for unpaid penalties.

From 1987 to 2004, the number of defendants proceeded against in court remained broadly stable, between 1.8 and 2.0 million. Since 2004, prosecutions declined almost year on year to 2012, driven by decreases in summary motoring offences brought before magistrates. The biggest decreases were for vehicle insurance offences, with large decreases also for driving licence related offences, speed limit offences, and driving after consuming alcohol or taking drugs.

Around six per cent of all defendants proceeded against are committed to the Crown Court for trial, virtually all for the more serious offences. The number of defendants appearing in the Crown Court for trial increased between 2005 and 2010 as a result of a greater proportion of cases being committed and sent for trial. Since 2010, this trend has reversed, with the volume of defendants tried at the Crown Court on the decline.

Trends in the number of offenders convicted – that is, defendants who plead or are found guilty – and sentenced at all courts are driven by two factors, namely the number of individuals dealt with through the courts (the trend in prosecutions) and the proportion of those individuals who are found guilty. Conviction ratios are calculated as the number of convictions as a proportion of the number of proceedings, and give a measure of the relative number of defendants who are found guilty within a given year when compared with the number who are prosecuted that year.

Over the last decade, convictions have declined almost year on year, in line with declining numbers of individuals proceeded against. However, the decline in convictions has not been as steep as for proceedings, as a greater proportion of proceedings h

The areas of focus include: Victimisation, Police Activity, Defendants and Court Outcomes, Offender Management, Offender Characteristics, Offence Analysis, and Practitioners.

This is the latest biennial compendium of Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System and follows on from its sister publication Statistics on Women and the Criminal Justice System, 2017.

Introduction

This publication compiles statistics from data sources across the Criminal Justice System (CJS), to provide a combined perspective on the typical experiences of different ethnic groups. No causative links can be drawn from these summary statistics. For the majority of the report no controls have been applied for other characteristics of ethnic groups (such as average income, geography, offence mix or offender history), so it is not possible to determine what proportion of differences identified in this report are directly attributable to ethnicity. Differences observed may indicate areas worth further investigation, but should not be taken as evidence of bias or as direct effects of ethnicity.

In general, minority ethnic groups appear to be over-represented at many stages throughout the CJS compared with the White ethnic group. The greatest disparity appears at the point of stop and search, arrests, custodial sentencing and prison population. Among minority ethnic groups, Black individuals were often the most over-represented. Outcomes for minority ethnic children are often more pronounced at various points of the CJS. Differences in outcomes between ethnic groups over time present a mixed picture, with disparity decreasing in some areas are and widening in others.

Key findings

Victims

• The Asian ethnic group had the lowest proportion of both adults (2%) and children (5%) who had experienced personal crime in the last year. In 2018/19, both adults and children from the Asian ethnic group were half as likely to report victimisation when compared to the White ethnic group.
• A higher proportion of Black homicides were against children, 17% of Black victims were 17 or younger, compared to an average of 11% across all ethnicities. Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, Black children made up 20% of all child victims, while Black victims made up 13% of victims across all age groups.

Police Activity

• The proportion of stop and searches conducted on White suspects decreased from 75% in 2014/15 to 59% in 2018/19 and increased for all minority ethnic groups. The largest increases were from 13% to 22% for Black suspects and from 8% to 13% for Asian suspects.
• In the last five years, the proportion of stop and searches involving Black suspects in London increased from 30% to 37%, now equal to the number of White suspects searched. In 2018/19, 48% of all stop and searches (where ethnicity is known) were conducted in London, and increasingly involving a higher proportion of suspects from minority ethnic groups when compared to the rest of England and Wales.
• Black suspects had the highest proportion of arrests that resulted from stop and searches in the latest year, at 20% which has increased from 15% since 2014/15. This is driven by a higher number of stop and searches in London, where resultant arrests accounted for 22% of all arrests, compared to 5% for the rest of England and Wales. For other groups, between 6% and 13% of arrests resulted from stop and searches.
• In 2018/19, two thirds (67%) of children arrested in London were from minority ethnic groups, compared to 21% of children arrested in the rest of England and Wales. Just over half (52%) of adults arrested in London were from minority ethnic groups, compared to 22% of adults arrested in the rest of England and Wales.

Defendants

• In the latest year, the largest fall in the volume of prosecutions and convictions for indictable offences was seen in the Asian group, down by 22% and 20% respectively. Prosecutions and convictions fell by 18% and 16% for Black defendants, by 13% each for White defendants, by 8% and 10% for defendants from Mixed ethnic groups and by 7% and 14% for defendants from Chinese or Other ethnic groups.
• White defendants consistently had the highest conviction ratio for indictable offences over the last 5 years (with the exception of 2015) and was 85% in 2018. The conviction ratios for White, Asian (83%) and Black (81%) defendants have converged with each other over the last 5 years, remained constant for defendants from Mixed ethnic groups (77%) and fallen for Chinese or Other ethnic groups (75%).
• Compared to White defendants (38%), larger proportions of Asian (40%), Mixed ethnicity (45%), Black (46%) and Chinese or Other (46%) defendants were remanded in custody for indictable

Statistics on race and the criminal justice system 2010

Biennial statistics on the representation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups as victims, suspects, offenders and employees in the Criminal Justice System.

These reports are released by the Ministry of Justice and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Introduction

This report provides information about how members of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BME) Groups in England and Wales were represented in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in the most recent year for which data were available, and, wherever possible, across the last five years. Section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 requires the Government to publish statistical data to assess whether any discrimination exists in how the CJS treats people based on their race.

These statistics are used by policy makers, the agencies who comprise the CJS and others to monitor differences between ethnic groups and where practitioners and others may wish to undertake more in-depth analysis. The identification of differences should not be equated with discrimination as there are many reasons why apparent disparities may exist.

Specific findings

Victims

The most recent data on victims showed differences in the risks of crime between ethnic groups and, for homicides, in the relationship between victims and offenders. Overall, the number of racist incidents and racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by the police had decreased over the last five years. Key Points:

• The 2010/11 British Crime Survey (BCS) showed that the risk of being a victim of personal crime was higher for adults from a Mixed background than for other ethnic groups. It was also higher for members of all BME groups than for the White group.
• Over the five-year period 2006/07 to 2010/11, there was a statistically significant fall in the risk of being a victim of personal crime for members of the White group of 0.8%. The apparent decrease for those from BME groups was not statistically significant.
• Of the 2,007 homicides recorded for the latest three-year period (2007/08 to 2009/10), 75% of victims were White, 12% Black and 8% Asian.
• In the majority of homicide cases, victims were suspected of being killed by someone from the same ethnic group, which is consistent with previous trends (88% of White victims, 78% of Black victims and 60% of Asian victims).

Suspects

Per 1,000 population, higher rates of s1 Stop and Searches were recorded for all BME groups (except for Chinese or Other) than for the White group. While there were decreases across the last five years in the overall number of arrests and in arrests of White people, arrests of those in the Black and Asian group increased.

• Per 1,000 of the population, Black persons were Stopped and Searched 7.0 times more than White people in 2009/10 compared to 6.0 times more in 2006/07.
• When referring to the rate per 1,000 population for England and Wales, it is important to bear in mind that the higher rate than that obtained for the rest of England and Wales(excluding the Metropolitan Police Service) is the product of the aggregation of 42 police force areas (PFAs), each with different distributions of both ethnic population and use of Stop and Search powers. While the area served by the Metropolitan Police Service accounts for 14% of the England and Wales population, 43% of s1 Stop and Searches are carried out by the Metropolitan Police Service.
• Across England and Wales, there was a decrease (just over 3%) in the total number of arrests in 2009/10 (1,386,030) compared to 2005/06 (1,429,785). While the number of arrests for the White group also decreased during this period, arrests of Black persons rose by 5% and arrests of Asian people by 13%.
• Overall, there were more arrests per 1,000 population of each BME group (except for Chinese or Other) than for people of White ethnicity in 2009/10. Black persons were arrested 3.3 times more than White people, and those from the Mixed ethnic group 2.3 times more.
• In 2009/10, just over 9% of s1 Stop and Searches compared with 12%, 4% and 1% respectively in 2006/07.

Defendants

Data on out of court disposals and court proceedings show some differences in the sanctions issued to people of differing ethnicity and also in sentence lengths. These differences are likely to relate to a range of factors including variations in the types of offences committed and the plea entered, and should therefore be treated with caution. Key points:

• Conviction ratios for indictable offences were higher for Wh

Please note that it has come to our attention that table 5.16 of Court Proceedings was incorrect when originally published. This table has now been replaced with a corrected version.

The annual release, presented on a calendar year basis, covers offenders dealt with by formal police cautions, reprimands or warning, or criminal court proceedings in England and Wales.

The order of chapters follows the flow of cases through the criminal justice system. As in previous years, more detailed data for the calendar year covered are published separately in six volumes of supplementary tables.

Court level sentencing data are now available for the first time as part of the commitments made in the Ministry of Justice’s Structural Reform Plan, in accordance with public data principles. The data will provide members of the public with information about what happened in their court and the sentences given.

The report is released by the Ministry of Justice and produced in accordance with arrangements provided by the UK Statistics Authority.

The Criminal statistics, England and Wales 2009 were published on 21 October 2010.

The supplementary tables (Excel spreadsheets in zip files) were published on 21 October 2010.

http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/previous-stats/sentencing-annual">Sentencing Statistics (annual) (NS)

Changes to the statistics were published on 20 October 2010.

Previous issues

http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/previous-stats/archive">Criminal statistics annual report archive

Please email the web team if you have difficulty opening the zipped files.

The bulletin is produced and handled by the ministry’s analytical professionals and production staff. Pre-release access of up to 24 hours is granted to the following persons:

Ministry of Justice: Secretary of State; Minister for Criminal Justice; Minister of State; Permanent Secretary; Special Adviser; Director General, Criminal Justice Group; Head of Better Trials Unit; four policy advisors; Director of Analytical Services; two sentencing policy managers; Senior Press Officer; four press officers; Strategic Communications Advisor; Head of Fairness and Confidence Unit; Director Criminal Policy, Head of Justice Team; Head of Community Confidence Team; Strategy Manager.

Home Office: Home Secretary; Permanent Secretary; Minister for Police and Crime Reduction; Head of Crime Strategy; Head of Violent Crime Unit; Head of Crime Strategy; Press Officer; Chief Statistician.

Attorney General’s Office: Attorney General; Solicitor General; Senior Policy Official.

Crown Prosecution Service: Press Officer.

Sentencing Council: Chairman of the Sentencing Council

The Judiciary: Lord Chief Justice; Senior Presiding Judge

This is the quarterly Q4 2024 criminal courts statistics publication.

The statistics here focus on key trends in case volume and progression through the criminal court system in England and Wales. This also includes:

• Experimental statistics on ‘the use of language interpreter and translation services in courts and tribunals;

Additional data tools and CSVs have also been provided.

Statisticians comment

This report covers the period to the end of December 2024.

This is the second release of data following the implementation of the “One Crown” project which has aligned definitions, methodologies and data processing for all published Crown Court measures across MOJ and HMCTS. Following an external quality review in December, the data have undergone a review by the Office for Statistics regulation which agreed with the earlier review to find significant confidence in the data and retain the Accredited Official Statistics status of this release.

As part of the “One Crown” implementation, we have continued to improve our Crown Court methodology and align HMCTS and MoJ processes. We have reviewed and improved all remaining headline Crown Court measures. This approach ensures that we continue to release robust, trustworthy and high value data. The impact of change is small, and trends are largely unchanged. Further detail concerning each change and the impacts on published series are available in the consultation document.

The demand on the criminal courts continues to grow with receipt volumes increasing at both the magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court. Receipts in the last year are higher than they have been across the series and are 13% higher than the previous year.

Disposals volumes have increased but remain below receipts at both magistrates and Crown courts resulting in the open caseload continuing to grow. At the Crown Court the open caseload continued to report a series peak, reaching 74,651 cases at the end of December 2024.

In the latest period trial effectiveness has remained stable and timeliness has fallen back from series peaks – both remain above pre-COVID levels seen in 2019.

Criminal court statistics quarterly, January to March 2025

The next criminal court statistics publication is scheduled for release on 27th June 2025.

Pre-release

In addition to Ministry of Justice (MOJ) professional and production staff, pre-release access to the quarterly statistics of up to 24 hours is granted to the following post holders:

Ministry of Justice

Private Offices; Permanent Secretary; Director General, Policy; Director General, Chief Operating Officer Group; Direct, Courts and Family Justice; Director Analysis; Director, Chief Data Officer; Deputy Director, Criminal Justice Strategy and Criminal Courts Policy; Criminal Court Policy and Procedure; Criminal Court Insights; Deputy Director, Courts and Tribunals Joint Unit; Courts and Tribunal Joint Unit; Deputy Director, RASSO and Domestic Abuse Policy; Rape Review; Courts Victim Experience and Attrition; Deputy Head of News; 3 Press Officers.

Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunals Service

Chief Executive, HMCTS; Chief Finance Officer, HMCTS; Director of Operations, HMCTS; Director, Strategy Analysis and Planning; Director, Communications; Head of External Communications, HMCTS; Deputy Director of Analysis and Performance (x2); Crime reporting and analysis; Deputy Director, Crime Live Service Owner; Crime Service Manager (x2); Deputy Director, Intelligent Client Function and Contract Services Division; Operational Contract Manager; Contract Support Officer.

Judicial Office

Chief Executive; Head of Digital and Data; Data Analyst (x2)

No.10

Private Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs; Justice and Home Affairs Policy Unit; Communications; Analysts

Earlier editions: Criminal Justice Statistics in England and Wales

This report presents the key trends from October 2011 to September 2012 for activity in the criminal justice system (CJS) for England and Wales.

Main findings

Overview of the criminal justice system in 12 months ending September 2012

In the 12 months ending September 2012, there were 1.86 million individuals given an out of court disposal or proceeded against at court. This compares with 2.03 million individuals in the 12 months ending September 2011, a decline of 8.4 per cent.

This consisted of a 13.0 per cent fall in the use of out of court disposals (from 444,400 to 386,900) and a 7.1 per cent fall in the number of defendants proceeded against at court (from 1,583,400 to 1,471,300).

Out of court disposals

Since the 12 months ending September 2008, the use of out of court disposals has decreased by 38.0 per cent (from 624,400 to 386,900 in the 12 months ending September 2012). The decline in the use of out of court disposals coincided with the replacement in April 2008 of a target to increase offences brought to justice, with one placing more emphasis on bringing serious crime to justice. The latter target was subsequently removed in May 2010.

Police cautions

There were 205,700 cautions administered in the 12 months ending September 2012.

• This represents a 12.5 per cent decrease compared with the 12 months ending September 2011 (235,000) and a 44.0 per cent fall on the 367,300 administered in the 12 months ending September 2007, when the use of cautions peaked.

Penalty Notices for Disorder (PNDs)_

There were 109,600 PNDs issued in 12 months ending September 2012.

This was 15.8 per cent fewer than the 130,300 issued in the same period of the previous year and 48.9 per cent fewer than the peak of 214,400 issued in 12 months ending September 2007, a downtrend trend similar to that observed with the use of cautions.

Court proceedings

In the 12 months ending September 2012, there were 1.47 million defendants proceeded against in magistrates’ courts and 1.23 million offenders convicted and sentenced of a criminal offence at all courts.

Prosecutions and convictions peaked in the 12 months ending September 2004, and have since fallen by 28.6 per cent and 21.5 per cent respectively. These falls have largely been driven by declines in proceedings for summary non motoring and summary motoring offences.

For the more serious indictable offences, prosecutions have fallen by 26.5 per cent since September 2002. The number of convictions for indictable offences have remained broadly flat over the same period, resulting in a rise in the conviction ratio from 65.3 per cent in the 12 months ending September 2002 to 82.6 per in the 12 months ending September 2012 - the highest ratio in 11 years.

Sentencing

Immediate custody

Of the 1.23 million offenders sentenced during the 12 months ending September 2012, there were 97,500 persons sentenced to immediate custody, a decrease of 4.7 per cent from 102,300 persons in the same period a year earlier and 12.6 per cent lower than the peak of 111,500 persons sentenced in the 12 months ending September 2002.

In the 12 months ending September 2012, the Average Custodial Sentence Length (ACSL) was 14.9 months, an increase of 0.6 months compared to the 12 months ending September 2011, and up from 2.5 months in the 12 months ending September 2002. The rise in ACSL has been driven by the change in the case mix of people getting custodial sentences and longer sentences for indictable offences.

Fines

Fines are the most common sentence passed at court, accounting for around two-thirds of all sentences handed out by the criminal courts (66.5 per cent in the 12 months ending September 2012). The fine rate is consistent with that seen in the same period for the previous year, and has declined from a peak of 70.3 per cent in the 12 months ending September 2004. The decline has been due to a decline in prosecutions and subsequent conviction for summary motoring offences - the offence type for which fines are most commonly given

The latest figure of 816,600 fines represents a decrease of 5. 2 per cent compared to the 12 months ending September 2011, and the lowest number of fines handed out over the last 11 years.

Suspended Sentence

This is the quarterly Q3 2020 criminal courts statistics publication.

The statistics here focus on key trends in case volume and progression through the criminal court system in England and Wales. This also includes:

• Management information concerning the enforcement of financial penalties in England and Wales;

• Experimental statistics on ‘the use of language interpreter and translation services in courts and tribunals;

• Experimental statistics on Failure to Appear Warrants at magistrates’ courts in England and Wales.

Additional data tools and CSVs have also been provided.

Statisticians comment

“This report covers the period to the end of September 2020 and shows the continued impact of COVID-19 on criminal courts.

Following the limited operation of the criminal courts and the gradual reintroduction of jury trials during the report period, the figures published today show signs of recovery in the system. This can be more clearly seen at the magistrates’ courts, where disposals have risen sharply in the latest quarter though are still below pre-COVID levels. A higher volume of disposals than receipts in the latest period has meant that the outstanding caseload has fallen.

Some of the magistrates’ court disposals will feed directly through to the Crown Court, where receipts have doubled in the latest quarter. Disposals have also increased but not at the same rate as receipts, as a result the outstanding caseload has risen.
The trends at both magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court continue beyond the National Statistics series into more recent management information published by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) – which are highlighted in this document.”

Criminal court statistics quarterly, October to December 2020

The next criminal court statistics publication is scheduled for release in March 2021.

Pre-release

In addition to Ministry of Justice (MOJ) professional and production staff, pre-release access to the quarterly statistics of up to 24 hours is granted to the following postholders:

Ministry of Justice

Permanent Secretary; Director General, Policy, Communications and Analysis; Director, Criminal Justice Policy; Deputy Director, Criminal Courts Policy; Criminal Court Reform Lead; Jurisdictional and Operational Support Manager; Head of Data and Analytical Services; Chief Statistician; 5 Press Officers.

Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunals Service

Chief Executive, HMCTS; Deputy Chief Executive, HMCTS; Deputy Director of Legal Services, Court Users and Summary Justice Reform; Head of Operational Performance; Head of Criminal Enforcement team, HMCTS; Head of data and management information, HMCTS; Head of Management Information Systems; Head of Communications; Head of News; Jurisdictional Operation manager and Head of Contracted Services and Performance for HMCTS Operations Directorate

Bar Council

Chair of the Bar Council, Director of Communications, Research Manager

Home Office

1 Senior Policy Official and 1 Statistician