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Accredited official statistics

Criminal court statistics quarterly: January to March 2026

Published 25 June 2026

Applies to England and Wales

© Crown copyright 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2026/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2026

Main points
The open Crown Court caseload stabilised At the end of March 2026 there were 80,061 open cases at the Crown Court. This represented a slight fall on the previous quarter (80,098) but a 5% increase on the previous year.
The open caseload in the magistrates’ courts increased to a series peak Receipts have remained above disposals, causing the open caseload to increase to a series peak of 370,222 – up 2% on the previous quarter and 11% on the previous year. The majority of the volume increase is due to non-SJP cases.
The non-SJP open caseload in the magistrates’ courts continued to increase The Single Justice Procedure (SJP) caseload was 186,157 - largely unchanged on the previous quarter and continuing to make up around half the magistrates’ open caseload. Non-SJP caseloads continued increases seen since 2022 and reached a post-COVID high of 184,565.
Crown Court: increase in cases open for a year or more The number of cases open for a year or more exceeded 22,000 for the first time and was 4,305 cases higher than the previous year. The median age of open cases continued to increase, reaching 196 days.
Ineffective trial rates stable at higher levels Ineffective rate decreased slightly but has remained broadly stable post-COVID at both the magistrates’ courts (21%) and the Crown Court (24%). Both continue to be well above pre-COVID levels.
Timeliness increased at the magistrates’ courts Median time from charge to completion at the magistrates’ (52 days) fell back a little following increases seen across 2025 (a rise from 39 to 56 days). Levels remain well above those seen pre-COVID (36 days).
Timeliness increased at the Crown Court Median time from charge to completion and the time from receipt to completion at the Crown Court both continued to increase, rising by 3 days on the previous year.

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 March 2026.

The demand entering the criminal courts remained high and receipts continued to exceed disposal volumes in the magistrates’ courts. This led to an increase in the open caseload to a new series peak, just exceeding 370,000 cases. Half of the caseload is for low-level SJP cases, while more serious non-SJP cases increased to a post-COVID peak (184,565).

In the Crown Court, the open caseload remained at around 80,000 - stabilising at the level seen in December 2025 and falling by less than 100 cases in the latest quarter.

Receipts levels were unchanged on the previous quarter and disposals increased slightly to a post-COVID quarterly peak, just exceeding incoming demand.

The increase in Crown Court disposals was largely seen for non-jury trial cases, including guilty pleas and dropped cases.

The age of the open caseload at the Crown Court continues to increase, with cases open for a year or more reaching a series peak of over 22,000. Of those cases open for a year or more, over half were sexual offences or violence against the person offences.

Trial ineffectiveness remained high across both jurisdictions and timeliness generally continued to show small increases.

Changes to note

Magistrates’ courts data developments:

1. Magistrates’ courts open caseload adjustment

An improvement in how hearings involving multiple cases and defendants are handled has been made, leading to an increase in disposals and a corresponding reduction in the open caseload by around 20,000 in March 2026. For further details, please see the ‘Date sources and data quality’ section of ‘A guide to criminal court statistics’.

2. New table M3 showing the magistrates’ courts split between Single Justice Procedure and non-Single Justice procedure cases

We have introduced a new table M3 which splits out the magistrates’ courts Single Justice Procedure (SJP) and non-SJP receipts, disposals and open cases. We have also expanded the commentary on SJP cases to better reflect the different procedures for these cases compared with other case types in the magistrates’ courts.

3. One Magistrates project

Following the improvements to data quality and coherence seen as a result of the One Crown project, alongside HMCTS we have commenced the One Magistrates project. This project will review all data we publish concerning the magistrates’ courts and aims to improve quality, coherence and value for users. There is the potential for the magistrates’ courts data series to change as the project develops – we will continue to consult users and outline key areas of change in future releases of this bulletin.

Crown Court data developments:

We continually review the data we publish to look for potential developments to better meet user needs. A summary of key developments in this release and those planned are outlined below.

  • We have added ‘remand_status’ and ‘defendant_plea’ breakdowns to the Crown Court timeliness tool, to provide greater granularity as to how long cases take for different plea and remand combinations.

  • In table C11, we have added three new columns to split out ‘Other appeals: Total’ into ‘Other appeals: Allowed’, ‘Other appeals: Dismissed’ and ‘Other appeals: Abandoned or otherwise disposed’. An additional column has been added for the percentage of other appeals allowed. We have added these columns to provide more granularity as to the proportion of different appeal types that are allowed.

  • Work alongside HMCTS continues to consider the reintroduction of published data relating to defendant representation status and grounds for sending. Further updates concerning proposed changes to annual measures will be communicated in due course.

1. Criminal cases in the magistrates’ courts

Open caseload at the magistrates’ courts increased to a new series peak

Receipts and disposals were both unchanged on the previous year but showed a 3% increase on the previous quarter. Receipts remained above disposals, causing a 2% increase in the open caseload on the previous quarter and an 11% increase on the previous year to a series peak of 370,722.

Figure 1: Magistrates’ courts caseload, Q1 2019 – Q1 2026 (Source: Table M1)

Magistrates’ courts caseload

Demand into the magistrates’ courts continues to increase, receipts and disposals have both increased since 2021 and have reached levels previously seen in 2019. The open caseload has grown steadily since 2023 and has reached a series peak.

There were 386,056 cases received into the magistrates’ courts in Q1 2026. This is up 3% on the previous quarter (376,178) and stable on the previous year (387,032).

  • SJP receipts increased by 4% on the previous quarter to 227,057 and were slightly below the series peak seen in Q1 2025 (231,771). SJP cases accounted for 59% of receipts in the latest quarter.

  • Non-SJP receipts continued to rise and reached a post-COVID series peak of 158,999, a 2% increase on the previous year. Receipts were higher pre-COVID with a peak of 180,963 in Q1 2019.

  • When looking at receipts for trials cases, receipts stood at a series peak of 77,877 in Q1 2026, a 2% increase on the previous quarter and a 4% increase on the previous year.

There were 380,082 disposals at the magistrates’ court in Q1 2026. This is up 3% on the previous quarter (370,671) but broadly stable compared to Q1 2025 (381,037).

  • SJP case disposal volumes remained high (225,250) and were unchanged on levels seen in the previous quarter and in Q1 2025. Disposal volumes were slightly below receipts in the latest period.

  • Non-SJP disposals increased 5% on the previous quarter, reaching 154,832 cases. This is broadly in line with the post-COVID series peak seen in Q1 2025. However, disposal volumes remain below receipts and have done for most quarters since 2023.

  • When looking at trial cases, disposals reached a post-COVID series peak in Q1 2026 at 74,364. This represented both a 3% increase on the previous quarter and previous year, with disposals generally showing an increasing trend since Q4 2022 (57,593). However, receipts have exceeded disposals for trial cases in every quarter since Q1 2022.

At the end of March 2026 there were 370,722 open cases at the magistrates’ courts, a peak since the comparable series began in 2019. This represents a 2% increase on the previous quarter (364,779) and an 11% increase on the previous year (323,194).

  • The open SJP caseload was 186,157 – increasing slightly following a small fall in the previous quarter. It remains close to the series peak (188,115) seen in Q3 2025. The SJP open caseload makes up 50% of the overall open caseload at the magistrates’ courts and approximately equates to around two and a half months of disposals.

  • The open non-SJP caseload continued to increase and stood at 184,565 at the end of March 2026 – this represents a 2% increase on the previous quarter and a 12% increase on the previous year. This approximately equates to three and a half months of non-SJP disposals.

  • The open caseload for trial cases reached a series peak of 83,020 in Q1 2026. This represented a 4% increase on the previous quarter and a 15% increase on the previous year. The volume of open trial cases in the magistrates’ courts has been steadily rising since Q1 2022 (50,689).

Trial efficiency at magistrates’ court

Trial efficiency measures at the magistrates’ courts remained broadly unchanged compared to the previous year - 39% were effective, 40% cracked and 21% ineffective.

Figure 2: Magistrates’ courts listed trials and ineffective trial rate (%), Q1 2014 – Q1 2026 (Source: Table M2)

Following a step change from 17% to 23% across 2020 and 2021, the ineffective trial rate has stabilised at this higher level, ranging between 21% and 23%.

  • The largest contributing ineffective reasons this quarter were overlisting (21%), defendant absence (11%), the defence not being ready (10%) and other cases overrunning (10%).

There were 4,884 vacated trials in the latest quarter, similar to both the previous quarter and the previous year (4,957). Volumes have remained broadly stable since the start of 2025.

Just over half of vacated trials (52%) were due to the prosecution discontinuing the case prior to trial with 19% due to an anticipated lack of court time.

2. Criminal cases in the Crown Court

Open caseload at the Crown Court has fallen slightly on the previous quarter. Disposals rose to a series peak since the pandemic

There were 80,061 open cases at the end of March 2026, a marginal decrease of 37 cases when compared to the previous quarter. Receipts stayed at the same level as the previous quarter with disposals increasing by 3%.

Crown Court caseload

Whilst receipts have broadly stabilised, the recent increase in disposals has slowed the growth in open caseload with disposals exceeding receipts in the latest quarter for the first time since Q1 2023. This has caused the open caseload to stabilise, reducing by 37 cases (less than 0.1%) compared to December 2025.

Figure 3: Crown Court caseload, Q1 2016 – Q1 2026 (Source: Table C1)

There were 29,426 cases received into the Crown Court in Q1 2026, a similar level to the previous quarter (29,569) and a 2% decrease on the same period in 2025 (30,174).

  • The decrease over the previous year was driven by a fall in triable-either-way receipts (falling 6% from 12,708 to 11,932) and appeals receipts (falling 12% from 1,504 to 1,330).

  • Of all offence groups, Violence against the person offences saw the largest proportionate drop in receipts over the previous year (10%). However, this remains the largest contributing offence group, accounting for 7,709 receipts (26% of all cases received).

  • There were notable proportionate increases in the volume of receipts for sexual offences (11%), criminal damage and arson (11%) and public order offences (7%) compared to Q1 2025. When looking specifically at rape offences, the number of receipts reached 1,416 representing a 13% increase on the previous year and a series peak.

There were 29,600 cases disposed of at the Crown Court in Q1 2026, representing a 3% increase on the previous quarter and 6% increase on the previous year. Disposal volumes reached a post-COVID quarterly series peak, slightly above the 29,534 seen in Q3 2024.

  • The largest volume increase in disposals over the previous quarter was ‘for trial’ cases, accounting for 738 (91%) of the 813 increase in disposals compared with Q4 2025.

  • When looking at offence groups over the previous quarter, the largest volume increases for disposals were for drug offences (a 4% increase of 195 cases), public order offences (a 12% increase of 186 cases) and appeals for summary offences (an 11% increase of 169 cases).

The open caseload reflects the workload in the courts at a given 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 recently received, those close to being disposed, those which are complex and take time to complete and those that may be delayed. It is useful to consider timeliness and volumes of receipts and disposals alongside the open caseload for important context.

At the end of March 2026 there were 80,061 open cases at the Crown Court. This represented a marginal fall of 37 cases from the series peak seen in Q4 2025 (80,098). Despite the fall in the latest quarter, the open caseload still increased by 5% over the previous year, as a result of receipts exceeding disposals in three of the last four quarters.

The latest open caseload volume broadly compares to around eight months of disposals, based on latest disposal levels and not factoring in any receipts during this period.

  • The largest offence group in the open caseload is violence against the person, accounting for 30% of all open cases. Sexual offences make up 19% of the open caseload and the volume reached a series peak in Q1 2026 at 15,373 cases. Drug offences are the third largest contributor, accounting for 13% of open cases.

  • When looking at regions, London is the largest contributor to the open caseload, accounting for 25% of cases. This is followed by the South East (19%) and the Midlands (18%). Over the previous quarter, most regions saw their caseload stay at a similar level or fall slightly (by 3% for the North East and South East). However, the open caseload for London increased by 4% from 19,357 to 20,203 cases.

Age of open caseload

The age of an open case is calculated from the date of receipt at Crown Court to the end of the reporting period.

  • At the end of March 2026, the median age of an open case was 196 days, a series peak. This represents a 4% increase on the previous quarter (188 days) and a 17% increase on the previous year (168 days).

Figure 4: Average age of open cases at the Crown Court, Q1 2016 – Q1 2026 (Source: Table O1)

  • There were 22,124 cases (a series peak) that had been open for a year or more, accounting for 29% of all open cases. The volume has increased by 24% on the previous year (17,819) and 6% on the previous quarter (20,939). For the last five quarters, the volume has grown by around 1,000 each quarter.

  • Over half of the cases open for a year or more were violence against the person (31%) or sexual offences (23%). Within this, 11% of cases open for a year or more were rape cases.

  • The offence groups with the highest proportion of cases open for a year or more were fraud (41%), sexual offences (34%) and miscellaneous crimes against society (32%).

Figure 5: Proportion of open cases at the Crown Court by grouped age, Q1 2016 – Q1 2026 (Source: Table O3)

Trial effectiveness at Crown Court

There were 7,939 trials listed to start in Q1 2026 – an increase of 4% on the previous year. The proportion of effective trials which commenced as planned increased from 43% to 46% compared to the previous quarter. The rate has been fairly consistent since the start of 2023 but remains below rates seen pre-COVID which averaged around 50%.

The percentage of trials which were not required (cracked) or were rescheduled (ineffective) both decreased slightly on the last quarter (from 32% to 30% and 26% to 24% respectively).

Ineffective trial rates have stabilised (between 23% and 26%) since the start of 2024 but are well above rates seen in 2019 (below 20%).

  • When looking at the reasons for trial ineffectiveness, overlisting remained the largest contributor (27%), followed by the defendant being absent (11%) and the prosecution not being ready (9%).

There were 6,440 vacated trials in the latest quarter, 12% higher than the previous quarter (5,772) and 13% higher than the previous year (5,678). The volume in the latest quarter represents a series peak and the first time the quarterly total has exceeded 6,000 cases.

  • Around a third (33%) of vacations were due to the defendant changing their plea to guilty, 20% due to the prosecution discontinuing the case prior to the trial date and 15% due to an anticipated lack of court time. These proportions were similar to the previous quarter.

Figure 6: Crown Court listed trials and ineffective trial rate (%), Q1 2016 – Q1 2026 (Source: Table C2)

Guilty plea rate

The guilty plea rate is the number of defendants in for trial cases which have been disposed who entered a guilty plea to all counts as a proportion of all those who entered a plea.

In Q1 2026 there were 11,892 defendants dealt with following a guilty plea – a 2% increase on the previous quarter and a 5% increase on the previous year. The guilty plea rate was 61% and is in line with levels seen since the start of 2023.

  • There were 3,903 defendants dealt with via a jury trial following a not guilty plea, accounting for 20% of all defendants entering a plea and is in line with levels seen since 2022 (19% - 23%).

  • Defendants dealt with via a jury trial following a not guilty plea in the Crown Court represented 3% of all trial cases disposed of at the magistrates’ courts and Crown Court. If all case types are included (appeals, sentence and SJP cases), this proportion drops to 1% of all cases.

  • There were 3,594 defendants whose case was dropped, accounting for 19% of defendants with a known plea. The volume of dropped cases has risen steadily since Q3 2022, with an 85% increase over this period including an 8% increase on the previous quarter.

Average waiting time at the Crown Court

Waiting time is the duration between case receipt and first main hearing for all defendants dealt with at the Crown Court. The waiting time estimates are a ‘lagged’, backwards looking measure counted at the point of disposal.

The median waiting time for all defendants dealt with at the Crown Court was 10.6 weeks in Q1 2026. This is a 10% increase on the previous quarter and a 4% increase on the previous year. The level remains well above pre-COVID levels (7.7 weeks in Q4 2019).

  • For those defendants dealt with via a jury trial following a not guilty plea, the median waiting time was 48.0 weeks. Despite a slight fall in the previous quarter (2%), this has generally been increasing since Q3 2024 (44.0 weeks) and is much higher than the time seen in 2019 (27.1 weeks).

  • The median waiting time for those entering a not guilty plea for defendants remanded into custody was 27.4 weeks compared to 66.3 weeks for those on bail throughout.

Average hearing time at the Crown Court

Hearing time refers to the total duration of all hearings heard in the Crown Court for a case including preliminary, main and sentence hearings. Hearing time estimates are a ‘lagged’, backwards looking measure for completed cases.

Both median and mean hearing time for all cases completed at the Crown Court have fluctuated slightly in recent years. The median time has remained around 1.0 hours throughout the series (since the start of 2016) and the mean has remained just above 3 hours (3.1 hours in the latest period).

  • The median decreased to 10.8 hours for jury trial cases where a not guilty plea was entered – this represents a 6% increase on the previous year (10.2 weeks) but a slight fall on the previous quarter (11.1 weeks).

  • In Q1 2026, the longest average hearing time in jury trial cases where a not guilty plea was entered was for sexual offences, with a median of 14.5 hours. For rape cases, this increased to 16.3 hours.

3. Timeliness

Time from charge to completion has increased in both the magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court

At the magistrates’ courts, the median time from charge to completion increased by 33% on the previous year, rising from 39 to 52 days. At the Crown Court it increased by 2% on the previous year, rising from 180 to 183 days.

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.

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.

We see increases in timeliness across most stages, which is largely due to trends seen for Single Justice Procedure cases. In the latest quarter, over 222,000 defendants were dealt with via SJP (64% of all defendants dealt with at the magistrates’ courts excluding breaches and those sent to the Crown Court), compared to almost 125,000 defendants in non-SJP cases.

The time from offence committed through to completion provides a useful estimate of the total time a victim of crime will have waited to reach a court outcome. This includes time spent prior to an offence being reported to the authorities and time taken for investigation.

  • Timeliness from offence to completion stayed at a similar level to the previous quarter (197 days) but increased by 6% on the previous year. Timeliness has been rising since the start of 2025 and remains well above levels seen prior to the pandemic (168 days in Q4 2019).

  • The increase in timeliness seen from Q1 2025 is due to an increase in timeliness for SJP cases - up 7% on the previous year, whereas timeliness for non-SJP cases fell by 7%.

Figure 7: Average number of days from offence to completion for defendants dealt with at the magistrates’ courts by stage, Q1 2016 – Q1 2026 (Source: Table T3)

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.

  • Timeliness from charge to completion has tended to increase over the last few years, rising from 35 days in Q4 2023 to 52 days in Q1 2026. This has fallen back slightly on the previous quarter (56 days in Q4 2025).

  • Most of this increase is due to SJP cases, which increased by 41% from 37 to 52 days over the previous year. In contrast, timeliness for non-SJP cases increased by 6% from 49 to 52 days.

  • Most of the increase is seen in the time required for Single Justice Procedure (SJP) cases to reach court. The time from charge to first listing for SJP cases increased 46% on the previous year, from 35 to 51 days.

  • The observed increase in timeliness for SJP cases follows all police forces migrating SJP casework to the Common Platform system from December 2024 onwards. Once the new process has fully embedded, we expect timeliness to return to previous levels.

Time spent from first listing to completion (‘At court’) is short with most cases concluding on the same day as the first listing. This is particularly the case for defendants dealt with via the SJP.

  • The median time spent ‘At court’ remained at 0 days for SJP cases and 2 days for non-SJP cases (a fall from 3 days in the previous quarter).

  • When looking at the mean, ‘At court’ time increased to 8 days for SJP and 66 days for non-SJP cases, reflecting the fact that a small proportion of cases take a lot longer than one day. The mean has decreased steadily since 2022 for SJP cases, falling from 20 to 8 days but showed an increase for non-SJP cases, which had a mean of 54 days in Q1 2022.

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 prior to report, investigation, 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 from legacy systems to create an ‘end-to-end’ defendant journey across key stages of the criminal justice system.

The time from offence committed through to completion provides a useful estimate of the total time a victim of crime will have waited to reach an outcome at the Crown Court.

  • The median duration from offence to completion for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court was unchanged on the previous quarter but increased by 20 days (6%) on Q1 2025, from 326 to 346 days. This is below a series high of 405 days seen in Q1 2022 but remains well above pre-COVID levels (254 days).

Figure 8: Average number of days from offence to completion for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court, Q1 2016 – Q1 2026 (Source: Table T4)

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 was 183 days, broadly stable relative to the previous quarter (181 days) and a 2% increase on the previous year (180 days). This has fallen from a post-COVID peak of 211 days (Q1 2022) and has broadly stabilised, ranging between 170 and 183 days since Q3 2023.

  • For defendants deal with via a jury trial following a not guilty plea, the median duration from charge to completion was 436 days – broadly unchanged on the previous quarter and up 12% on the previous year (388 days). The latest level is close to the series peak of 448 days seen in Q2 2023.

The median time from receipt to completion for defendants dealt with at the Crown Court was 168 days, up 2% on the previous quarter (164 days) and 4% on the previous year (161 days). This has risen steadily since Q3 2024 (146 days).

  • For defendants deal with via a jury trial following a not guilty plea, the median duration from receipt to completion was 410 days, broadly unchanged on the previous quarter and up 14% on the previous year (360 days) – close to the series peak of 412 days (Q2 2023). The mean was 495 days, broadly unchanged on the previous quarter and up 6% on the previous year.

4. Language interpreter and translation services

Completed language service requests fell on the previous year

There were 52,823 completed requests in Q1 2026, down 4% on the previous year. The success rate of 96% has remained broadly unchanged over the previous year. These figures cover the whole of the Ministry of Justice and not just the criminal courts.

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.

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 (52,823) fell by 4% on the previous year (54,872) but increased by 6% compared to the previous quarter.

The proportion of requests that were unfulfilled (3%) has stabilised at between 2% and 3% each quarter, following a spike to 8% in Q3 2024. This period was impacted by a booking portal update in June 2024, aimed at resolving responsiveness, which caused unexpected short-term issues.

The 96% success rate seen in Q1 2026 remained stable, the same as the previous quarter and down one percentage point on the previous year.

There were 12,951 cancelled requests in Q1 2026. This represented 25% of all completed bookings. The proportion has tended to increase across the current contract from 13% in 2017 to 25% in Q1 2026.

Figure 9: Number of completed language service requests and overall success rate, Q1 2014 – Q1 2026 (Source: Table L1)

Complaints and complaint rate

There were 262 complaints made in Q1 2026. The overall complaint rate was 0.5% in the latest period and has remained below 1% since 2021.

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 Q1 2026, 215 trials were ineffective due to interpreter availability across both magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court. This is broadly consistent with the volumes seen since the start of 2024, with lower volumes seen in previous years. This continues to account for 3% of all ineffective trials.

‘Off-contract’ requests

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

There were 3,306 ‘off-contract’ requests in Q1 2026. This is broadly consistent with the volume seen since the start of 2024.

The MoJ undertook a review of the off-contract data collection methods, which improved the robustness of the series from Q2 2024 onwards. This change led to a higher baseline of activity than previously reported prior to this quarter.

5. 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 a 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. 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.

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: 24th September 2026
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

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