Accredited official statistics

Criminal court statistics quarterly: April to June 2025

Published 25 September 2025

Applies to England and Wales

Main Points

Magistrates’ court: increase in open caseload	Case receipt and disposal volumes both increased on the previous year - with a greater increase seen in receipts. Receipts remained above disposals, which resulted in an increase in the open caseload to a series peak of 361,027.
Crown Court: increase in open caseload	Receipts continued to increase and remained close to series highs. Disposal volumes have also increased, but they remain below receipts. As a result, the open caseload continued to increase and reached a series peak of 78,329.
Crown Court: increase in cases open for a year or more	The median age of open cases has increased by 10% on the previous year but fallen slightly on the previous quarter. The number of cases open for a year or more increased reaching a series peak of 19,164 cases open for a year or more.
Ineffective trial rates show some improvement in the Crown Court	The ineffective trial rate at the magistrates’ courts was unchanged at 22%. However, for the Crown Court this decreased to 23% - the lowest level seen since June 2021.
Time from offence to completion at the magistrates’ court has increased	The median time from offence to completion at the magistrates’ court has increased by six days on the previous year - estimates remain above levels seen prior to 2020.
Timeliness for charge to completion for Crown Court cases increased over the past year	The median time from charge to completion at the Crown Court was 179 days – this is largely unchanged on the previous quarter and 2% higher than the previous year. Estimates remain well above pre-COVID levels seen prior to 2020.

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 2025.

The demand on the criminal courts continues to grow with receipt volumes maintaining high levels at the magistrates’ courts – with increases seen for more serious “for trial” cases. Receipts at the Crown Court have maintained high levels over the last year, with over 30,000 cases entering the Crown Court in the latest quarter.

Disposals volumes have increased in the latest quarter but remain below receipts at both magistrates’ and Crown courts, resulting in the open caseload continuing to grow. The open caseload increased by 2% in the Crown Court and by 6% in the magistrates’ court, reaching series peaks for both jurisdictions in the latest period.

In the latest period trial effectiveness improved in the Crown Court, with the ineffective trial percentage falling to the lowest level since June 2021.

Timeliness (defined as at court time) in both courts increased over the past year, up 2% in the Crown Court and 3% in the magistrates’ court. In addition, the age of the open caseload continued to increase, with a higher proportion of cases open for more than a year.

Changes to note

One Crown development

We have carried out two consultations regarding the One Crown project and the resultant changes to the Crown Court data. We received no external response raising concerns of the definitional changes or impacts on published series.

There are no further changes made to published measures in this latest release. However, we are not able to provide some of the annual measures as supplied in previous CCSQ releases. The ongoing data development work means that we have an opportunity to reconsider the data offering in CCSQ including the metric design, purpose and frequency to ensure that outputs meet user needs both in terms of content and frequency.

The development of measures remains ongoing and further updates concerning proposed changes to annual measures will be communicated in due course.

Single Justice Procedure (SJP) - statistics in development

In the previous release we published statistics in development concerning Single Justice Procedure (SJP) cases in the criminal courts, for the first time. We are continuing to consider the frequency and user requirements for this series and whilst we are not publishing data this quarter, we will keep this under review and provide a further update in the December 2025 release.

Changes to magistrates’ court open caseload estimates

A revision has been made to the magistrates’ court caseload data published in this release. The revision follows the identification of a cohort of cases that were missing their offence type classification. These cases were previously excluded from the published criminal court caseload but following work by HMCTS to update the underlying reference data we can now more accurately report on these cases.

The inclusion of this cohort has increased criminal receipts and disposals by around 8,500 cases per month over the last 12 months , and the criminal open caseload has increased by around 31,000 as of March 2025.

This revision sits alongside a wider suite of work taken forward by MOJ and HMCTS over the last 12 months to improve data quality. We expect to see further revisions in slower time as we improve the quality of the underlying data and will update users on the cause of any changes to the published figures.

Further information concerning the impacts of the revision to the magistrates’ courts caseload data can be found in the supporting Guide to Criminal Court Statistics

1. Criminal cases in the magistrates’ courts

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Open caseload at the magistrates’ courts increased on the previous year

Receipts and disposals at the magistrates’ courts increased by 4% and 1% on the previous year but fell by 3% and 6% on the previous quarter. Disposals remained below receipts and as a result the open caseload increased 6% on the previous quarter and 25% on the previous year.

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Figure 1: Magistrates’ courts caseload, Q1 2019 – Q2 2025 (Source: Table M1)

Magistrates’ court caseload

Receipts and disposals have both tended to rise from series lows in Q2 2020 when the initial measures were put in place to manage the immediate risks of the COVID-19 pandemic in courts^{[footnote 1][footnote 2][footnote 3]}. Disposal levels remain slightly below those seen in 2019 prior to the pandemic but receipt levels are now at a similar level.

• There were 374,916 cases received into the magistrates’ courts in Q2 2025. This is up 4% on the previous year (361,653) and has reached a similar level to those seen in 2019. As part of this overall increase, there were notable increases in ‘for trial’ and summary motoring cases (both 8%).

• In line with receipts, disposals at the magistrates’ court increased on the previous year but to a lesser degree – with 354,800 disposals in Q2 2025. This includes an increase in “for trial” disposals (5%) and Summary Non-Motoring disposals (4%).

• At the end of June 2025 there was a series peak of 361,027 open cases at the magistrates’ courts. This represents a 6% increase on the previous quarter (340,948) and a 25% increase on the previous year (289,595). There was a 31% increase in the volume of open “for trial” cases, up from 63,042 to 82,604 at the end of June 2025.

Trial efficiency at magistrates’ court

Trial efficiency measures at the magistrates’ courts remain unchanged on the previous quarter - 40% were effective, 39% cracked and 22% ineffective^{[footnote 4]}.

The ineffective trial rate has stabilised following the initial increases seen across 2020 and remains above pre-COVID levels (15-17%). Since September 2023, the ineffective trial rate has remained at 22%, with the largest contributing reasons this quarter being overlisting (20%), other cases overrunning (12%) and defendant absence (11%).

Figure 2: Magistrates’ courts listed trials and ineffective trial rate (%), Q1 2014 – Q2 2025 (Source: Table M2)

2. Criminal cases in the Crown Court

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Continued increase in the open caseload at the Crown Court Receipts remained close to series highs and were unchanged on the previous year. Disposals showed a 2% increase on the previous year but remain below receipts - as a result, the open caseload has continued to increase to a new series peak of 78,329.

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Crown Court caseload

The increased throughput from the magistrates’ courts as part of the initial recovery from the pandemic response saw the volume of receipts at the Crown Court exceed pre-COVID levels in late 2020. Following a slight decline, receipts have tended to increase since 2023, surpassing levels seen pre-COVID from 2016 to 2019.

There were 30,434 cases received into the Crown Court in Q2 2025. This is the second highest quarterly volume seen across the series since 2016 and reflects the increasing level of demand entering the Crown Court since Q1 2023.

Figure 3: Crown Court caseload, Q1 2016 – Q2 2025 (Source: Table C1)

• The increase in receipts at the Crown Court in the last year is seen in “for trial”^{[footnote 5]} cases (7%) while other case types fell – for sentence (-11%) and appeal cases (-2%).

• There were notable increases in the volume of receipts for sexual offences (13%), robbery (14%) and drug offences (12%) compared to the previous year. When looking specifically at rape offences, the number of receipts reached a series peak of 1,291 representing a 21% increase on the previous year.

• Violence against the person offences continue to be the largest contributing offence group with 8,734 receipts in the period – this represents an increase of 48% compared to Q4 2019 and accounts for 29% of all cases received in the quarter.

There were 28,831 cases disposed at the Crown Court in Q2 2025. The volume remains broadly in line with those seen over the last year, up 3% on the previous quarter (27,919) and up 2% on the previous year (28,152) and well above levels seen in Q4 2019 (23,132).

• The largest proportionate increase in disposals was seen in “for trial (Triable-either-way)” cases which increased by 8% on the previous year. In contrast, sentence cases decreased by 4% on the previous year.

• “Violence against the person” disposals increased by 7% and reached a series high of 8,091. Sexual offence disposals increased 6% on the previous year and maintained levels last seen in 2016. Of the other offence types, “criminal damage and arson” saw a notable increase, rising by 12%, although volumes remain relatively low for this offence type.

The open caseload reflects the workload in the courts at any time.  It will never be zero, as it reflects the volume of cases that are active in the courts at a particular point, including those cases that have been recently received, those close to being disposed, those which are complex and take time to complete and those that may be delayed.  The open caseload fell between 2016 and 2019, and at the end of 2019 it stood at 38,070.

At the end of June 2025 there were 78,329 open cases at the Crown Court, this is a series high and continues increases seen since Q1 2023.

The open caseload increased by 2% on the previous quarter (76,811 cases) and 10% on the previous year (70,893 cases).

• The largest increases in the open caseload compared to the previous year were seen for sexual offences (18%) and violence against the person (15%) cases.

• The increases in open caseload volumes can be seen for all regions compared to the previous quarter. London reported the largest open caseload at 18,118 – this represents an increase of 4% on the previous quarter (17,501) and 25% on the previous year (14,450).

Age of open caseload

The median age of an open case is calculated from receipt at Crown Court to the end of the reporting period. The median age of an open case increased sharply from around 90 days in 2019 to a series peak of 190 days in 2021 during the pandemic. After the pandemic, the median decreased to 153 days in 2024 with some fluctuation between quarters.

At the end of June 2025, the median age of an open case was 168 days, this represents a 1% decrease on the previous quarter (170 days) but a 10% increase on the previous year (153 days).

At the end of June 2025 there were 19,164 cases that had been open for a year or more, accounting for 26% of all cases, a slightly greater proportion than last quarter. The latest volume is 6% higher than the previous quarter (18,029), 17% higher than the previous year (16,378) and represents a series peak.

Of the cases open for a year or more, 30% were for “violence against the person”, 21% were for sexual offences and 13% were for drug offences.

Figure 4: Average age of open cases at the Crown Court, Q1 2016 – Q2 2025 (Source: Table O1)

Figure 5: Proportion of open cases at the Crown Court by grouped age, Q1 2016 – Q2 2025 (Source: Table O3)

Trial effectiveness at Crown Court

There were 7,282 trials listed to start in Q2 2025 – a decrease of 4% on the same quarter in the previous year. The proportion of trials which commence as planned (effective) increased from 43% to 45%. This has been fairly consistent for the last two years but remains below rates seen pre-COVID which average around 50%.

The percentage of trials that are not required (cracked) increased from 30% to 32% and the percentage which are rescheduled (ineffective) decreased from 26% to 23% in the last quarter. There has been a step-change in the ineffective trial rate on levels seen prior to 2020 (ranging around 13-19%) and rates have stabilised at these higher levels, although with a slight reduction in the most recent quarter.

Figure 6: Crown Court listed trials and ineffective trial rate (%), Q1 2016 – Q2 2025 (Source: Table C2)

Guilty plea rate

The guilty plea rate is the number of defendants in cases which have been disposed who entered a guilty plea to all counts as a proportion of all those who entered a plea. The guilty plea rate increased sharply following the immediate COVID-19 response and the suspension of jury trials and more recently it has fallen back to pre-COVID levels. In Q2 2025 the guilty plea rate was 61%, broadly in line with levels seen since the start of 2023 but slightly below the rate seen in earlier periods.

The number of defendants dealt with via a jury trial following a not guilty plea has fallen 5% on the previous year (from 4,109 in Q2 2024 to 3,892 in Q2 2025). However, there has been a notable increase in defendants whose case is dropped – up 10% on the previous year (from 3,168 in Q2 2024 to 3,488 in Q2 2025).

Average waiting time at the Crown Court

Waiting time is the duration between case receipt and first main hearing. The waiting time estimates are a ‘lagged’, backwards looking measure counted at the point of disposal. The median waiting time for defendants dealt with was 10.1 weeks in Q2 2025. This has increased slightly on the previous year (10.0 weeks) but remains well above pre-COVID levels (7.7 weeks in Q4 2019).

For those entering a not guilty plea, the median waiting time was 44.7 weeks. This represented an 8% increase on the previous quarter. This was considerably higher than the time seen immediately pre-COVID, when the median waiting time stood at around 27 weeks.

Average hearing time at the Crown Court

Hearing time is the duration of all hearings for a completed case. The hearing time estimates are a ‘lagged’, backwards looking measure counted at the point of disposal. Both median and mean hearing times for all cases completed at the Crown Court have fallen on the previous year, down 2% and 14% respectively.

The median hearing time of ‘for trial’ cases where a not guilty plea was entered has fallen slightly, down 1% on the previous year from 11.0 to 10.9 hours.

3. Timeliness

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Time taken for Crown Court cases from charge to completion has slightly increased

The median time from charge to completion for cases completing at the Crown Court increased by 3 days (2%) on the previous year, rising from 176 to 179 days. Timeliness estimates remain well above pre-COVID levels, which were around 140 days.

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The timeliness measures are based on defendants whose cases have completed and as such are ‘backwards’ looking measures of timeliness between offence and completion at the relevant criminal court jurisdiction.

Single Justice Procedure timeliness

In the latest quarter there were 202,652 defendants dealt with at the magistrates’ courts via the Single Justice Procedure (SJP). This represents 66% of all defendants dealt with at the magistrates’ court (excluding breaches and defendants sent to the Crown Court) and is up 6% on the previous year.

The median duration from offence to completion for defendants dealt with via SJP in the quarter was 195 days, up 4% on the same period in the previous year (188 days).  

Magistrates’ courts timeliness

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

Figure 7: Average number of days from offence to completion for defendants dealt with at the magistrates’ courts by stage, Q1 2014 – Q2 2025 (Source: Table T3)

The median duration from offence to completion at the magistrates’ courts stabilised below 190 days in 2023, following falls from series highs of around 200 days seen in late 2020 and early 2021. The latest estimates show an increase on the previous year from 184 to 190 days, with timeliness rising relative to the levels seen in 2023.

• ‘Pre-court’: the median time from ‘offence to charge’ increased by 3% compared to the previous year, rising by 4 days from 135 days to 139 days. The time from ‘charge to first listing’ increased by 6% from 33 days to 35 days.

• ‘At court’: the median estimate remained 0 days, where the first listing and completion occur on the same day. The mean duration increased by 6% over the previous year to 26 days. This follows sharp increases seen over the COVID period and a peak of 50 days in Q4 2020.

Crown Court timeliness (“End-to-end”)

End-to-end timeliness measures the time from an offence being committed through key stages of the criminal justice system including charge, passage through the magistrates’ courts and subsequent completion of a defendant’s case at the Crown Court. The estimates are created by linking magistrates’ courts and Crown Court data outputs to create an ‘end-to-end’ defendant journey across key stages of the criminal justice system.

The median duration from offence to completion for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court has remained stable over the past year but fallen by 2% on the previous quarter to 338 days. The current median is 17% below a series high of 407 days from Q1 2022 and remains above pre-COVID levels (254 days in Q4 2019).

Figure 8: Average number of days from offence to completion for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court, Q1 2014 – Q2 2025 (Source: Table T4)

The time from offence committal through to completion provides a useful estimate of the total time a victim of crime will have waited to reach a court outcome. The time from charge to completion provides an estimate of the time that criminal justice agencies have spent progressing a case through to reaching an outcome at court.

The median time from charge to completion for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court in Q2 2025 was 179 days. This has tended to fall back from peaks seen in 2021 and has fluctuated between 170 and 180 days since 2023 Q3. The latest estimate remains well above levels seen prior to 2020 (136 days in Q4 2019).

In ‘for trial’ cases where a not guilty plea was entered, the median duration from charge to completion was 392 days – this is up 2% on the previous quarter (386 days) but down 5% on the previous year (414 days). This has fallen from a series peaks seen in Q2 2023 (448 days).

4. Language interpreter and translation services

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Completed language service requests rose to a series peak

There were 51,339 completed requests in Q2 2025, up 5% on the previous year. The success rate increased from 91% to 97% over the same period.

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As well as the data included in this bulletin, the Cabinet Office also publish Key Performance Indicator (KPI) data on all central government contracts including those delivering the MOJ language interpreter and translation services. There are 12 KPIs covering four contract lots, with the same scope as the published official statistics. The Cabinet Office provide a quarterly snapshot of supplier performance against contract terms and more closely track operational delivery of the contract.

These KPIs are produced using similar underlying data sourced from contract providers but they serve a different purpose to the official statistics. The official statistics provide a broader view of the contracted service and provide longer-term and more granular breakdowns of trends in booking volumes, fulfilment, complaints and off-contract use. Both KPIs and official statistics can be used together to provide a coherent picture of performance under these contracts, albeit some of the measures will not be directly comparable.

Please see A Guide to language interpreter and translation services statistics for further information on the differences between the metrics published.

Key links:

MOJ Language Interpreter and Translation Service statistics (Tables L1-L3): Criminal court statistics- GOV.UK (see Tables document)

• L1 – Request fulfilment
• L2 – Complaints
• L3 – Off contract requests

MOJ Trial Effectiveness Tool: Criminal court statistics - GOV.UK (see Trial effectiveness at the criminal courts tool)

• Reason 29: Ineffective reason: No interpreter available

Cabinet Office KPI data: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for government’s most important contracts - GOV.UK

The Cabinet Office publish KPI data quarterly by financial year and it is available from 2020 Q1. To find data relating to interpreters and language services you can search for ‘Translation and Transcription’, ‘Language Services Lot 1’, ‘Language Services Lot 3’ and ‘Language Services Lot 4’ within the ‘Contract title and description’ column. Alternatively, you can search for the individual suppliers under the ‘Supplier’ column: ‘thebigword Group’, ‘Clarion Interpreting Ltd’ and ‘the Language Shop’.  

Completed service requests

The volume of completed service requests fell back slightly from the peak seen in the previous quarter (down 6% to 51,339) but remain above levels seen in the previous year (up 5%).

The number of unfulfilled requests has fallen by 8% over the last quarter to 1,171. A spike was observed in Q2 and Q3 of 2024, with unfilled requests in these quarters roughly 2,000 higher than other quarters. These quarters were impacted by the June 2024 booking portal update, aimed at resolving responsiveness, which caused unexpected short-term issues. Although resolved quickly, these errors temporarily impacted fulfilment rates earlier in 2024.

The overall success rate in Q2 2025 remained the same as the previous quarter at 97% - back to levels seen prior to Q2 and Q3 of 2024, when the success rate dropped to 90%.

The number of cancelled requests fell by 9% on the previous quarter from 14,518 to 13,234 and by 12% on the quarter before that, which followed resolution of the issues with the booking portal.

Figure 9: Number of completed language service requests and overall success rate, Q1 2014 – Q2 2025 (Source: Table L1)

Complaints and complaint rate

There were 167 complaints made in Q2 2025. This represents a decrease of 48% on the previous quarter and a decrease of 33% on the same quarter from the previous year (251).

The overall complaint rate was 0.3% in the latest period and has remained below 1% since Q2 2020.

Ineffective trials due to interpreter availability

An ineffective trial is one that does not go ahead on the scheduled trial date, and a further listing is required. This can be due to action or inaction by one or more of the prosecution, the defence or the court.

Statistics regarding the volume of criminal court trials which are rescheduled on the planned start date due to interpreter availability are published as part of the trials efficiency tool covering both magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court. The trials data is collected as part of the quarterly trial efficiency measures and it is not directly connected to the source of interpreters data - as such the two sets of series are not directly comparable.

In Q2 2025, 201 trials were ineffective due to interpreter availability across both magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court. This is similar to the previous period (197) and continues to account for a relatively small volume of all listed trials (0.3%).

‘Off-contract’ requests

‘Off-contract’ requests are those which are procured outside of the contracted services where fulfilment cannot be achieved by the supplier.

MOJ have undertaken a review of the off-contract data collection methods. Improvements to the collection have resulted in a more robust but higher baseline of activity than previously reported. This is considered a necessary change that improves data integrity and more accurately reflects the off-contract request volumes.

The development in this data series reflects the MOJ’s commitment to continuous improvement and best practice - ensuring more reliable insights into booking activity in the future. The improved data is available from Q2 2024 currently and, if possible, we will seek to revise the back series in a future publication to reflect the improvements.

There were 3,082 ‘off-contract’ requests in Q2 2025, this represents an increase of 10% on the previous quarter (2,799) but a decrease of 9% on the same quarter from the previous year (3,403).

Further information on criminal courts data

The data presented in this publication are from live administrative databases. Therefore, previously published data is liable to be updated in the latest bulletin, following any further data cleaning or the incorporation of additional cases not available in the extracts used to produce previous bulletins.

Accompanying files

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

• 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.

Accredited official statistics status

Accredited Official Statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. These Accredited Official Statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in March 2025^{[footnote 6]}. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled as accredited official statistics.

It is the Ministry of Justice’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected for Accredited Official Statistics. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with the Authority promptly. Accredited Official Statistics status can be removed at any point when the highest standards are not maintained and reinstated when standards are restored.

Official statistics in development status

Official statistics in development are official statistics that are undergoing a development; they may be new or existing statistics, and will be tested with users, in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Until September 2023, they were called ‘experimental statistics’. Official statistics in development are developed under the guidance of the Head of Profession for Statistics (HoP). The goal is to develop statistics that can, in due course, be produced to the standards of the Code.^{[footnote 7]}

Contact

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

Tel: 0203 334 3536

Website: Media Enquiries

Other enquiries and feedback about these statistics should be directed to:

Email: criminal_court_sta@justice.gov.uk

Next update: 18th December 2025

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 criminal_court_sta@justice.gov.uk

1. https://www.judiciary.uk/guidance-and-resources/coronavirus-covid-19-message-from-the-lord-chief-justice-to-judges-in-the-civil-and-family-courts/ ↩

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

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

4. https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/publication/review-of-the-quality-of-criminal-court-statistics-for-england-and-wales/ ↩

5. https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/ ↩

6. https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/publication/review-of-the-quality-of-criminal-court-statistics-for-england-and-wales/ ↩

7. https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/ ↩