National statistics

Criminal court statistics quarterly: April to June 2021

Published 30 September 2021

Applies to England and Wales

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Main Points

COVID-19 and associated actions impacted on most criminal court measures The recovery at the criminal courts continues following the initial impacts of the COVID-19 response. The latest figures continue to reflect the pandemic response, restrictions over the period and recovery rather than a continuation of trends.
Magistrates’ court: increase in disposals and fall in outstanding cases Case disposals rose – but remain below pre-COVID levels. Outstanding cases decreased by 8% on the previous quarter and 14% on the series peak seen in Q2 2020.
Crown Court: continued increase in outstanding cases Receipts and disposals stabilised close to pre-COVID levels, but receipts remain above disposals. Outstanding cases continued to rise but at a slower rate, up 1% on the previous quarter. Levels remain 40% higher than the previous year.
Crown Court: increase in average age of outstanding cases The median age of an outstanding case in Q2 2021 was 162 days - this has increased by 22% on the previous year. Around a fifth (19%) of cases have been outstanding for a year or more, up from 11% in Q2 2020.
Crown Court: increase in volume of trial listings In Q2 2021 there were 5,388 trials listed at the Crown Court. This represents a 28% increase on the previous quarter with volumes returning to pre-COVID levels.
Timeliness increased at both the magistrates’ court and Crown Court The time from offence to completion at the magistrates’ court increased by 3% on the previous year. Time from receipt to completion at the Crown Court increased by 32%.
End-to-end timeliness: increase in time from offence to completion The time from offence to completion at the Crown Court increased sharply (89%) with median estimates up from 216 days in Q2 2020 to 408 days in Q2 2021.

The technical guide to ‘Criminal court statistics’ and ‘Language interpreter and translation services in courts and tribunals’ can be found at the links below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-guide-to-criminal-court-statistics

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/guide-to-language-interpreter-and-translation-services-statistics

Statistician’s comment

This report covers the period to the end of June 2021, it shows the impact of COVID-19 response on criminal courts and the recovery from measures put in place to minimise risks to court users.

Following the limited operation of the criminal courts, particularly during Spring 2020,[footnote 1] and the gradual reintroduction of jury trials[footnote 2] during the report period, the figures published today show the continued recovery in the system.

The volume of listed trials at both the magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court continues to increase, returning close to pre-COVID levels.

Disposals at the magistrates’ courts and Crown Courts continue to rise from series lows in the previous year. Receipts remain above disposals at the Crown Court meaning that the outstanding caseload continues to grow, although this growth has slowed and the latest management information from Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service to July 2021 indicate that outstanding volumes have begun to stabilise.

The continued impacts of the COVID response and ongoing restrictions are also evident in the increase in timeliness estimates across both magistrates’ courts and Crown Courts.

1. Change to note

Common Platform and reform to criminal court data[footnote 3]

‘Common Platform’ is a new digital case management system for the magistrates’ and Crown Courts. The system seeks to streamline data collection, data accessibility and improve the way criminal cases are processed across the Criminal Justice System. It will eventually replace the existing ‘legacy’ criminal court systems Libra (magistrates’) and XHIBIT (Crown), with a single, streamlined system.

Early adopter courts across England and Wales will test the system before the subsequent rollout to all criminal courts. Derbyshire magistrates’ and Crown Court began this process in September 2020 and the roll out has continued across England and Wales . Common Platform has been rolled out (as at 30th June 2021) in 79 courts and is live in 25 Crown Courts and 54 magistrates’ courts.

  • Data included in this publication regarding the magistrates’ court caseload does include both ‘legacy’ and Common Platform estimates as new cases enter the new system.

  • Data including in this publication regarding the Crown Court caseload does include both ‘legacy’ and Common Platform estimates as new cases enter the new system. Where possible estimates are being included to ensure that coverage is complete and that the trends presented are not misleading. However, the data is in development and is subject to future revision. It is not currently possible to produce all our established published breakdowns and calculations from Common Platform data. Caution should be taken when drawing conclusions from further breakdowns such as offence groups and case types as these are not currently available on an equivalent reporting basis.

  • All other derived criminal courts measures do not yet include any Common Platform data. This includes trial effectiveness, plea entry and timeliness estimates (magistrates’ courts, Crown Court and end to end linked timeliness). The omitted data represents less than 2% of total disposals, this is a growing but reasonably small number of disposed cases at a national level and as such is unlikely to have a material impact on trends in the current release. Caution should be taken when drawing conclusions from further geographic breakdowns as these are more likely to be affected by the omission of Common Platform data.

  • Failure to Appear Warrants data is not included in this publication. A substantial proportion of the magistrates’ courts casework has moved onto the Common Platform and currently information regarding result codes, which facilitates this dataset, is not extracted from the new case management system. As a result, it is not possible to produce reliable and robust estimates of the failure to appear warrants data. As soon as this data is available, robust and quality assured, this part of the publication will be reinstated.

We are working to develop data processing on the new system in collaboration with HMCTS and partner agencies to understand the implications for the published National Statistics series and to create solutions. As we continue to develop these solutions, we expect some series to be disrupted, with an increased likelihood of substantial revisions and we may be required to withhold or delay the publication of some quarterly series. We are committed to ensuring that published statistics remain accurate, robust and coherent for users during the operational transition of data systems at the criminal courts.

Outstanding caseload refresh

The inclusion of Common Platform data provides an opportunity to review and refresh our published methodologies. We are working closely with HMCTS analysts and operations to ensure that the we are maximising the quality, coherence and consistency across published National Statistics and HMCTS management information figures on caseloads.

This will result in changes to the existing caseload methodologies in the next release to Q3 2021 planned for publication in December 2021. Full details and impacts of the changes being made will be given alongside the next release. The changes will reconcile estimates, improve data quality and simplify reporting for users by increasing transparency in how we report. Together with HMCTS this will provide a robust and joined up account of the criminal court caseload.

Data developments

Timeliness estimates updated to June 2021 New experimental statistics using a new data linking methodology has been developed using the Ministry of Justices open-source statistical ‘Splink’ package to provide updated end-to-end timeliness estimates for the second time since December 2019.

Currently the new data provides national level estimates of timeliness from offence to completion for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court (Table T4).

We will continue to develop the new linked end-to-end timeliness methodology and expand the available data to bring it back in line with the previous published series (e.g. by court, offence group and publication of all court estimates of timeliness).

Alongside the gradual development of the experimental statistics we will continue to try to best meet user demands via more granular data on separate (‘unlinked’) timeliness estimates for magistrates’ courts and Crown Court.

  • magistrates’ court timeliness estimates (T1 - T3) - providing estimates of the time from offence to completion for defendants dealt with at the magistrates’ courts only.

  • Crown Court timeliness estimates (E1 - E2) - providing estimates of the time from case receipt to completion for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court only.

For further information regarding the extent and impacts of the data developments detailed here please see the Guide to criminal court statistics.

2. Criminal cases in the magistrates’ courts


Criminal case receipts at the magistrates’ courts stabilised while disposals rose – both remain below pre-COVID levels. Outstanding cases continued to fall from a series peak in Q2 2020.

Receipts fell by 4% on the previous quarter, while disposals increased by 12%. Outstanding cases fell by 8% on the previous quarter but remain higher than pre-COVID levels.


Figure 1: Magistrates’ courts caseload, Q2 2012 – Q2 2021 (Source: Table M1)

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Magistrates’ court caseload

Receipts and disposals have tended to rise from series lows in Q2 2020 after the phased reopening of courts[footnote 5]. However, levels remain well below that seen in the previous year following the review of court arrangements on the 23rd March 2020[footnote 6] and the return of restrictions in January 2021[footnote 7].

  • Receipts in the magistrates’ courts decreased by 4% on the previous quarter but have increased by 20% compared with the series low seen in the previous year. Volumes remain around 20% lower than levels seen pre-COVID (e.g. compared to Q2 2019) – this is particularly true for summary non-motoring cases (down 36%).

  • The volume of cases disposed increased, up 12% on the previous quarter and more than doubled since the series lows seen in the previous year. The latest quarterly rise is largely due to a 35% increase in the volume of summary non-motoring cases being disposed of in the latest quarter. Overall disposals remain 13% below levels seen pre-COVID.

  • There were 364,122 outstanding cases at the magistrates’ court at the end of Q2 2021, this represents an 8% reduction on the previous quarter (395,228) and 14% on the series peak in Q2 2020 (422,182). The quarterly decrease was seen for all case types with ‘for trial’ outstanding cases down 9% on the previous quarter.

The latest published HMCTS management information provides monthly volumes of receipts, disposals and outstanding cases for all cases types at the magistrates’ courts (e.g. including civil and enforcement in addition to criminal cases).

Data to July 2021 shows stabilisation and a relative slowing of increases seen with receipts and disposals falling by 4% and 8% respectively on the previous month. Disposals continue to be above receipts and as such outstanding case volumes have continued to fall month on month, down 2% in the latest period.

Trial efficiency

The total number of listed trials in magistrates’ courts has continued to increase following historical lows in Q2 2020.
There were 23,431 trials listed for Q2 2021, a 3% increase on the previous quarter (22,779). The trial listed volumes have returned to levels seen pre-COVID.

  • Of trials listed for Q2 2021, the proportion that were ineffective (21%) remained above pre-COVID levels but fell slightly on peaks seen in the previous quarter (24%). A corresponding increase can be seen in the effective and cracked trial rates, up 1% and 2% respectively.

Vacated trials are trials which have been removed from the listing before the date of the trial, they are counted in the period the vacation happened rather than the date when they were due to be listed (as for effective, cracked and ineffective estimates).

There were 5,952 trial vacations in Q2 2021, this represents a sharp decrease on the previous quarter (down 30%) and on the peak seen in the previous year (down 55%).

Figure 2: Magistrates’ courts listed trials and vacated trials, Q1 2010 – Q2 2021 (Source: Table M2)

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3. Criminal cases in the Crown Court


The volume of outstanding cases at the Crown Court continued to rise.

In Q2 2021 receipts and disposals at the Crown Court maintained pre-COVID levels, however receipts remain above disposals. As a result, the volume of outstanding cases increased by 40% compared to the previous year and 1% on the previous quarter.


Figure 3: Crown Court caseload, Q1 2014 – Q2 2021 (Source: Table C1)

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Crown court caseload (Table C1)

The increased throughput from the magistrates’ courts following the ongoing recovery from the pandemic response has seen the volume of receipts at the Crown Court exceeding pre-COVID levels. Similarly, the phased reintroduction of jury trials[footnote 8] mean disposals at the Crown Court have risen since series lows seen in Q2 2020.

  • There were 25,112 case receipts into the Crown Court in Q2 2021. This represents a fall on the previous quarter (5%), with volumes falling back to pre-COVID levels.

  • There were 24,356 case disposals at the Crown Court in Q2 2021. Case disposals continued to increase from a series low in Q2 2020, up 3% on the previous quarter and returning to pre-COVID levels.

At the end of Q2 2021 there were an estimated 60,692 outstanding cases at the Crown Court, an increase of 40% on Q2 2020 (43,217 cases) and 1% on the previous quarter (59,942). This is the highest level of outstanding cases seen since the series began in 2014 and continues increases seen since Q1 2019.

  • The quarterly increase in outstanding caseload is only in ‘for trial’ cases, up 2%. Sentencing and appeal outstanding case volumes show no change on the previous quarter.

The latest published HMCTS management information provides monthly volumes of receipts, disposals and outstanding cases for all cases types at the Crown Court.

The data to July 2021 shows that receipts continue to fall in the latest period (down 9%), while disposals continue to rise (up 5%) on the previous month. This has caused the outstanding caseload to stabilise and fall slightly (down 2%), however the latest monthly estimate remains well above the pre-COVID baseline.

Analysis of the outstanding caseload at the Crown Court - experimental statistics

To address additional interest in the outstanding case estimates at the Crown Court this release includes ‘experimental statistics’ providing estimates of the average length of time (days) that a case has been outstanding.

The age of an outstanding case is calculated from the point of receipt into the Crown Court and the latest outstanding date, e.g. as at the end of March 2021. The average age of an outstanding case has increased sharply across the COVID-19 pandemic period.

  • In Q2 2021 the median (162 days) and mean (230 days) estimates continued to rise, up 7% and 22% respectively on the previous year.

Figure 4: Age of outstanding cases at the Crown Court, Q1 2014 - Q2 2021 (Source: Table O1)

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The proportion of cases which have been outstanding for a year or more has increased sharply across the COVID period – from 11% in Q2 2020 to 19% in Q2 2021. This is down slightly on the previous quarter (21% in Q2 2021) with proportions stabilising, while cases aged ‘6 months to 1 year’ increased from 21% to 27%.

  • The slight falls in cases which have been open for a year or more is true across all case types. This is highest in ‘for trial’ cases where around a fifth of cases (21%) have been open for a year or more, up 9 percentages points on the previous year.

Figure 5: Proportion of outstanding cases at the Crown Court by grouped age, Q1 2014 - Q2 2021 (Source: Table O3)

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Trial efficiency

The volume of trials at the Crown Court was falling prior to the pandemic, since 2015. There were 5,388 trials listed for Q2 2021, a 28% increase on the previous quarter with volumes returning to pre-COVID levels.

The effective trial rate has fallen back to pre-COVID levels (51% in Q2 2021) while the ineffective trial rate remains slightly higher than levels previously seen (20%).

Vacated trials are trials which have been removed from the listing before the date of the trial. They are counted in the period the vacation happened rather than the date when they were due to be listed (e.g. as for effective, cracked and ineffective estimates). There were 4,411 vacated trials in Q2 2021, down 13% on the previous quarter and 3% on the previous year.

Figure 6: Crown Court listed trials and vacated trials, Q1 2014 – Q2 2021 (Source: Table C2)

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Guilty plea rates

For defendants dealt with in ‘for trial’ cases at the Crown Court in Q2 2021, around 70% entered a guilty plea [footnote 9]. This remains higher than pre-COVID but represents a slight fall back from a series peak in Q2 2020 (79%). The increase in the guilty plea rate reflects the restricted ability of courts to progress jury trials (i.e. cases where a not guilty plea is entered).

In Q2 2021, 16% of all defendants dealt with at the Crown Court entered a not guilty plea. This represents a rise on the previous quarter and previous year, although it is still below the series average (around 20%).

Average waiting and hearing time at the Crown Court

The median waiting time [footnote 10] for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court was 8.6 weeks in Q2 2021. This represents an increase from 7.3 weeks on Q2 2020 and returns to levels previously seen in 2016.

Median waiting times in ‘for trial’ cases where a not guilty plea was entered has increased sharply to a series peak (37.5 weeks). The proportion of defendants dealt with following a not guilty plea has increased but remains below pre-COVID levels.

Average hearing time at the Crown Court

The median hearing time [footnote 11] of ‘for trial’ cases where a not guilty plea was entered, was 12.8 hours. This has settled at a slightly higher level than pre-COVID (ranging from 10.4 to 12.1 hours) but is down on the series peak seen in Q2 2020 (15.0 hours).

4. Timeliness


Timeliness at the magistrates’ courts and Crown Court increased

The time from offence to completion at the magistrates’ court stabilised around the series peak, 201 days in Q2 2021. At the Crown Court, the time from receipt to completion continued to increase (137 days) returning to levels last seen in 2015.


New experimental statistics using a new data linking methodology have been developed using the Ministry of Justices open-source statistical ‘Splink’ package to provide updated end-to-end timeliness estimates for the second time since December 2019. Currently the data provides only national level estimates of timeliness from offence to completion for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court (Table T4).

We will continue to develop the new linked end-to-end timeliness methodology and expand the available data to bring it back in line with the previous published series (e.g. by court, offence group and publication of all court estimates of timeliness).

Alongside the gradual development of the experimental statistics we will continue to try to best meet user demands via more granular data on separate (‘unlinked’) timeliness estimates for magistrates’ courts and Crown Court.

  • Magistrates’ court timeliness estimates (T1 – T3) – providing estimates of the time from offence to completion for defendants dealt with at the magistrates’ courts only.

  • Crown Court timeliness estimates (E1 – E2) – providing estimates of the time from case receipt to completion for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court only.

Magistrates’ court timeliness

Timeliness at the magistrates’ courts measures the time from an offence being committed through key stages of the criminal justice system including charge, first listing at the magistrates’ court and subsequent completion at court.

The median duration from offence to completion of defendants dealt with at the magistrates’ courts (201 days) remained stable on the previous quarter and maintained series highs seen since Q3 2021 (e.g. around 200 days).

  • ‘Pre-court’ time continued increases seen across the series. The median time from ‘offence to charge’ increased to a series high of 132 days in Q2 2021. The median time from ‘charge to first listing’ remained unchanged on the previous quarter and fell on the previous year (from 40 to 38 days).

  • ‘At court’ median duration remained stable at 0 days, where the first listing and completion occur on the same day. However, the mean duration for all cases fell slightly (down 8%) following sharp increases seen over the last year, from 26 days in Q2 2020 to 45 days in Q2 2021.

  • Defendants completing at the magistrates’ courts required 1.8 hearings on average, this represents a small fall on the previous quarter (2.0).

  • Similarly, the percentage of defendants who completed at first listing increased, up to 66% - this is still below pre-COVID levels (around 74%).

Figure 7: Average number of days from offence to completion for cases completing at the magistrates’ courts only by stage, Q2 2010 – Q2 2021 (Source: Table T3)

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Crown Court timeliness - experimental statistics

Timeliness at the Crown Court is measured from the point of a case entering a Crown Court, reaching a main hearing and then completion at court. This data series remains in development and as such it is considered ‘experimental statistics’. Data presented here is not produced on the same basis as linked end-to-end timeliness data (see Tables T4).

The median duration from case entry to completion at the Crown Court increased 32% on the previous year, up from 104 days in Q2 2020 to 137 days in Q2 2021.

  • Increases can be seen across both ‘receipt to main hearing’ (from 54 days in Q2 2020 to 64 days in Q2 2021) and ‘main hearing to completion’ (from 6 days in Q2 2020 to 21 days in Q2 2021).

  • The annual increase in overall median timeliness at the Crown Court can be seen in ‘for trial’ cases – up 52%, while sentence case durations fell (down 11%).

Figure 8: Median duration from receipt to completion in ‘for trial’ cases by plea at the Crown Court by case type, Q1 2014 - Q2 2021 (Source: Table E2)

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  • In ‘for trial’ cases where a guilty plea was entered, the median duration from receipt to completion at the Crown Court increased by 34% from 119 days in Q2 2020 to 160 days in Q2 2021. Increases can be seen in the time from both receipt to main hearing (up 23%) and from main hearing to completion (up 46%).

  • In ‘for trial’ cases where a not guilty plea was entered, the median duration from receipt to completion at the Crown Court increased by 18% from 307 days in Q2 2020 to 362 days in Q2 2021.

Linked end-to-end timeliness - experimental statistics

New experimental statistics using a new data linking methodology have been developed using the Ministry of Justices open-source statistical ‘Splink’ package to provide updated end-to-end timeliness estimates for the second time since December 2019.

The full series has been revised back as far as possible and replaces the previous rules based approach to data linking.

Figure 9: Average number of days from offence to completion for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court, Q1 2021 - Q2 2021 (Source: Table T4)

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In Q2 2021, the median duration from offence to completion for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court was 408 days – this is the longest duration seen across the series (Q1 2014 – Q2 2021), and has increased sharply following the pandemic. The latest median estimate represents an increase of 89% on the previous year (216 days in Q2 2020) and 12% on the previous quarter (365 days in Q1 2021).

Increases can be seen across both median and mean estimates in time spent ‘pre-court’ (e.g. from offence to first listing) and ‘at court’ (e.g. from first listing at the magistrates’ courts to completion at the Crown Court)

5. Enforcement of financial impositions


Total financial impositions continued to increase from series lows in Q2 2020 and are back to pre-COVID levels.

Total financial impositions in Q2 2021 rose to £156m from £54m in Q2 2020 and returned back to pre-COVID levels. The total value of outstanding financial impositions increased slightly to £1.24 billion in Q2 2021.


Figure 10: HMCTS management information: Financial impositions by imposition type, England and Wales, Q2 2011 – Q2 2021 (Source: Table A2)

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Financial impositions and amounts paid by imposition type

Following the impacts of the COVID-19 response the overall value of impositions has increased back to pre-COVID levels. In Q2 2021 the value of impositions rose by 37% on the previous quarter and more than double the series low seen in Q2 2020. The majority of this is largely due to increases in fines, where the value of fines imposed nearly tripled (from £35.9m in Q2 2020 to £105.0m in Q2 2021).

Outstanding financial impositions

In Q2 2021, the total value of financial impositions outstanding in England and Wales was £1.24 billion, up 2% on the previous quarter.

The amount of outstanding financial impositions has doubled since the start of 2015 (£571m). A change in policy regarding the collection of financial impositions is partially behind this cumulative increase – unpaid accounts are no longer routinely closed and therefore, more outstanding impositions are carried over from previous periods.

6. Experimental Statistics – language interpreter and translation services


The number of completed language service requests increased on the previous quarter and the success rate remained stable.

There were 39,903 completed requests in Q2 2021, up 44% on the previous quarter. The success rate for requests was 97%, stable with the previous year.


Completed service requests

There were 39,903 completed requests in Q2 2021, up 44% on the previous quarter (25,580) and well above the series lows seen in the previous year (6,775).

Figure 11: Number of completed language service requests and overall success rate, Q1 2013 – Q2 2021 (Source: Table L1)

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Success rate

The overall success rate of requests was 97% in Q2 2021, this is similar to rates seen since 2017. The proportion of cancellations (which are excluded from the success rate calculation) increased in Q2 2020 to 34% – this has fallen back closer to pre-COVID proportions in the latest period (21% in Q2 2021).

Complaints and complaint rate

The number of complaints has remained very low since Q2 2020, with only 160 complaints made in Q2 2021. This represents a sharp increase on the volume of complaints seen in Q1 2021 (49) but the overall complaint rate has remained well below 1%.

‘Off-contract’ requests

The number of ‘off-contract’ requests in Q2 2021 increased on the series low seen in the previous year and on the previous quarter. There were 409 requests, up 62% on Q1 2021 and up on the series low of 74 requests in Q2 2020.

7. Further information on criminal courts data

The latest data presented in this publication are provisional. Final data for each calendar year is published in June, following further data cleaning and the incorporation of additional cases not available in our original extracts.

Accompanying files

As well as the bulletin, the following products are published as part of this release:

  • Two technical guides providing background information and standalone quality guide.

  • A set of overview tables, covering each section of this bulletin.

  • Pivot tools and underlying data which feature further breakdowns of published data.

National Statistics status

National Statistics status means that official statistics meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value. This bulletin recently underwent a compliance check with the Office for Statistics Regulation and retained its National Statistics status in January 2019[footnote 12]. All official statistics should comply with all aspects of the Code of Practice for Statistics. They are awarded National Statistics status following an assessment by the Authority’s regulatory arm which considers whether the statistics meet the highest standards of Code compliance, including the value they add to public decisions and debate. It is the Ministry of Justice’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected for National Statistics. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with the Authority promptly. National Statistics status can be removed at any point when the highest standards are not maintained, and reinstated when standards are restored.

Experimental Statistics status

Experimental statistics are produced under the remit of the Code of Practice for Statistics. They are also produced impartially and are free from political influence[footnote 13].

Future publications

Our statisticians regularly review the content of publications. Development of new and improved statistical outputs is usually dependent on reallocating existing resources. As part of our continual review and prioritisation, we welcome user feedback on existing outputs including content, breadth, frequency and methodology. Please send any comments you have on this publication including suggestions for further developments or reductions in content to the contacts listed below.

Contact

Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice press office:

Tel: 020 3334 3536

Email: newsdesk@justice.gsi.gov.uk

Other enquiries about these statistics should be directed to the Justice Statistics Analytical Services division of the Ministry of Justice:

Damon Wingfield, Head of Criminal Courts and Sentencing Data and Statistics,
Ministry of Justice, 3rd Floor, 10 South Colonnade, London, E14 4PU

Email: statistics.enquiries@justice.gsi.gov.uk

Next update: 16th December 2021

URL: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics

© Crown copyright Produced by the Ministry of Justice

Alternative formats are available on request from statistics.enquiries@justice.gsi.gov.uk

  1. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmcts-management-information 

  2. https://www.judiciary.uk/announcements/jury-trial-sites-4/ 

  3. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/common-platform-system-tested-in-criminal-courts/ 

  4. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/more-face-to-face-hearings-as-courts-reopen 

  5. https://www.judiciary.uk/announcements/review-of-court-arrangements-due-to-covid-19-message-from-the-lord-chief-justice 

  6. https://www.judiciary.uk/announcements/message-from-the-lord-chief-justice-latest-covid-19-restrictions/ 

  7. https://www.judiciary.uk/announcements/jury-trial-sites-4/ 

  8. Guilty plea rate is the number of defendants pleading guilty to all counts as a proportion of those with a plea. 

  9. The waiting time is the duration between a case being sent to the Crown Court and the first main hearing. 

  10. The hearing time is the time a case spends being heard in the Crown Court, including preliminary hearings, main hearings, and hearings where a sentence is given to a defendant. 

  11. https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/correspondence/compliance-check-on-court-statistics/ 

  12. https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/monitoring-and-assessment/code-of-practice/