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" class="govuk-link">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.

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" class="govuk-link">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.

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

For further information about the Justice Data Lab, please refer to the following guidance:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/justice-data-lab" class="govuk-link">http://www.justice.gov.uk/justice-data-lab

Key findings this quarter

Two requests are being published this quarter: The Thinking Skills Programme (2010-2019), and Lancashire Women – second request (2015-2021).

The Thinking Skills Programme (2010 – 2019)

There are two Thinking Skills Programme (TSP) reports which evaluate (a) the impact on reoffending behaviour, and (b) the impact on prison misconduct, for individuals who participated in the TSP. The TSP is an accredited offending behaviour programme designed and delivered by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).

Impact evaluation of prison-based TSP on reoffending

The reoffending study involved a treatment group of 20,293 adults (18,555 males, 1,738 females) who participated in the TSP in custody between 2010 and 2019. Proven reoffending was measured over a two-year period from the point of release from custody.

Over a two-year period from release, men who participated in the TSP were less likely to reoffend, reoffended less frequently, and took longer to reoffend, compared to similar males who did not participate in the TSP. These results were statistically significant and the effect sizes were very small.

Results indicated that over a two-year period following release, females who participated in the TSP reoffended less frequently, compared to similar females who did not participate in the TSP. These results were statistically significant with very small effect sizes.

Impact evaluation of the TSP on prison misconduct

The prison misconduct study involved a treatment group of 13,891 adults (12,938 males, and 953 females) who participated in the TSP between 2011 and 2019.

The male headline analysis results showed that over a 6-month period after starting the TSP those who had participated were less likely to receive an adjudication compared to males who did not participate in the TSP and received an adjudication less frequently. These results had very small effect sizes and were statistically significant.

The female headline analyses showed that over a 6-month period after starting the TSP females who had participated in the TSP received any form of adjudication less frequently compared to those who did not participate in the TSP. This result had a very small effect size and was statistically significant.

Lancashire Women – Second request (2015-2021)

Lancashire Women support women involved, or at risk of involvement, in the criminal justice system. The gender specific organisation offers support around societal stigmas, housing, emotional wellbeing, education, employment, and family and relationships. This is the second JDL evaluation for Lancashire Women, looking at programme participants between 2015 and 2021.

The overall results show that those who took part in the Lancashire Women were less likely to reoffend, reoffended less frequently and took longer to reoffend than those who did not take part. These results were statistically significant.

Justice Data Lab service: available reoffending data

The Justice Data Lab team have brought in reoffending data for the second quarter of 2021 into the service. It is now possible for an organisation to submit information on the individuals it was working with up to the end of June 2021, in addition to during the years 2002 to 2020.

Pre-release access

The bulletins are 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: Minister of State, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Special Advisers, Permanent Secretary, Deputy Head of News, 1 Director General, 6 press officers, 18 policy officials, and 5 analytical officials. Relevant Special Advisers and Private Office staff of Ministers and senior officials may have access to pre-release figures to inform briefing and handling arrangements.

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.

Between May 2023 and January 2024, work was undertaken to develop and deliver significant improvements to the criminal court sentencing data. For transparency, we have updated the annual interactive data tools published in CJSQ 2022 Q4 (May 2023 release) to ensure users have access to the revised figures for breakdowns by offence characteristics and offender demographics – these replace previous versions of the tools, which have been moved to a separate folder on the CJSQ 2022 Q4 landing page for archiving, but we urge users to use the new versions. While trends across the series remain reliable, users may find differences in figures between 2016 and 2017 - particularly at a detailed offence level or for specific sentencing outcomes. Users should consult the technical appendix for explanations of notable impacts due to the change in data processing methods between 2016 and 2017.

As a result, the Q4 2022 CJSQ publication has been updated to include revised annual tools, overview tables, technical guide and a new technical appendix. The commentary (including Statistician’s comment) and infographic are still based on the old data system and should not be used for exact figures.

Statistician’s comment:

The figures published today, for 2022, demonstrate the continued recovery of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) since the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and covers the period of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) action from April to October 2022, which may have impacted convictions at the Crown Court during the period. Prosecutions and convictions have increased in the latest year, however, they both remained below levels in 2019. The increase in the latest year was driven by summary offences, while prosecutions for indictable offences decreased. Prosecutions for theft increased for the first time since 2012 and sexual offences increased for the fourth consecutive year since 2018. Convictions for violence against the person decreased for the first time since 2020. The custody rate for indictable offences has risen to levels seen in 2020 at 34% in the latest year, after a fall in 2021. In the latest year, the average custodial sentence length (ACSL) for indictable offences has fallen slightly, although it has risen for most of the last 10 years.