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

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.

The reports present key statistics on activity in the criminal justice system for England and Wales. It provides information for the latest year (2017) with accompanying commentary, analysis and presentation of longer term trends.

Interactive Sankey diagrams (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 and flows through the criminal justice system accompany this bulletin.

https://moj-analytical-services.github.io/criminal_justice_statistics_sankey/">Flow of defendants through the Criminal Justice System

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 Justice; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Victims, Youth and Family Justice; Lords spokesperson – Ministry of Justice; 2 Special Advisers; Principal Private Secretary; Deputy Principal Private Secretary; Covering Assistant Private Secretary; 4 Private Secretaries; Deputy Private Secretary; 4 Assistant Private Secretaries; 2 Press Officers; Director of Communications; Permanent Secretary; Director General, Justice Analysis & Offender Policy Group; Director, Analysis and Data Driven Department and Culture Change; Chief Statistician; Director, Offender and Youth Justice Policy; Director General, Offender Reform and Commissioning Group; Deputy Director, Legal Operations - Courts & Tribunals Development Directorate; Deputy Director, Sentencing Policy; Section Head, Criminal Court Policy; 3 Policy Advisors; Policy Official; Deputy Director, Crime; Head of Operational Performance; Director, Family and Criminal Justice Policy.

Home Office

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

The Judiciary

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

Other

Senior Policy Adviser, Office of the Attorney General; Desk officer, Cabinet Office.

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 2015 to December 2015) 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

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice; Minister of State for Policing, Fire, Criminal Justice and Victims; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Minister for the Courts and Legal Aid; Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Minister for Prisons, Probation and Rehabilitation; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Human Rights; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Family Justice; Permanent Secretary; 3 Special Advisors; Senior Policy Advisor; Director General, Finance and Corporate Services, Corporate Performance Group; Director General, Criminal Justice Group; Director, Criminal Justice Policy; Director, Criminal Justice Reform Directorate; Director, Director of Prison Estates Transformation; Director of Analytical Services and Chief Economist; Deputy Director, Legal Services, Court Users, and Summary Justice Reform Courts & Tribunals Development Directorate; Deputy Director, Sentencing Policy; Chief Statistician; 2 Policy Advisors, Sentencing Policy; Policy Advisor, Youth Sentencing/Courts & Gangs and Violence policy; Head of External Communications; Head of Criminal Justice System Statistics; 3 Press Officer; 4 Private Secretaries; 3 Assistant Private Secretaries.

Home Office

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

The Judiciary

Lord Chief Justice; Head of Lord Chief Justice’s Criminal Justice Team; Legal Advisor to the Lord Chief Justice; Assistant Private Secretary.

Other

1 Policy Officials, Attorney General’s Office; Policy Advisor, 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.

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.

These tables and Pocketbook summarise the latest information presented in Justice in Numbers in printable format. For a full explanation of each measure, sources and full time series, please visit:

https://data.justice.gov.uk/justice-in-numbers">https://data.justice.gov.uk/justice-in-numbers

The Pocketbook is designed to be printed as an A5 booklet on A4 paper but can be printed in other layouts as required. Please ensure that you have selected the appropriate print settings for your setup in order to print in an appropriate layout for your requirements.