Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: June 2026
Description: Overview of trends in the use of out of court resolutions, defendants prosecuted, offenders convicted, remand and sentencing decisions in England and Wales.
Applies to England and Wales
Documents
Details
Details
This report presents key statistics on activity in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) for England and Wales. It provides commentary for the 12-month period to June 2026 (referred to as the ‘latest year’). The contents of this bulletin will be of interest to government policy makers in the development of policy and their subsequent monitoring and evaluation. Others will be interested in the way different crimes are dealt with in the CJS and trends in sentencing outcomes.
Statistician’s Comment
The number of people prosecuted, convicted and sentenced in England and Wales remained stable compared to last year.
Below the headline figures, prosecutions for indictable offences continued to rise, alongside an increase in the number of crimes resulting in a police charge.
Motoring prosecutions reached their highest level in the series, while prosecutions for summary non-motoring offences fell.
The use of immediate custody continued to rise, with the number of immediate custodial sentences at the highest level since year ending June 2018, while the custody rate changed little in the latest year.
At magistrates’ courts, more offenders received immediate custodial sentences, particularly between six and twelve months following the extension of magistrates’ sentencing powers. At the Crown Court, slightly fewer offenders were sentenced overall but the number receiving custodial sentences of more than 12 months increased.
Offenders sentenced to prison received longer sentences on average. Average sentence lengths for many offence groups increased, particularly violence against the person.