Statistics release cancelled
Following discussions between the Head of Profession for Statistics and the Office for Statistics Regulation, we are cancelling the publication of the Q3 Criminal Justice Statistics. This is due to the need to further develop our data systems to fully incorporate data from the Common Platform, the new digital case management system for the magistrates’ and Crown Courts, which is currently being rolled out. The Common Platform will eventually replace the existing ‘legacy’ criminal court systems Libra (magistrates’) and XHIBIT (Crown) with a single, streamlined system. (1) (2)
The Q2 2021 data was published excluding cases recorded on the Common Platform as they comprised a small proportion of the data. However, we estimate the impact to be greater on the Q3 data, with a larger proportion of prosecutions and convictions on the new system. While we are working hard to incorporate Common Platform data, it has not been possible to do this reliably ahead of the release date, and publishing Q3 data without the Common Platform cases will materially impact the reliability of the statistics.
We are now continuing to develop our systems to produce a continuous series that includes all cases from Common Platform and legacy criminal court systems in time for the next publication in May 2022, which will include data for both Q3 and Q4 2021.
To note, Q3 2021 data on First Time Entrants (FTE) will be published on February 17 as originally planned. These statistics are produced from the Police National Computer (PNC) which involves a different data process and has not been affected by the roll out of Common Platform.
We will keep users updated of any further changes via our published release calendar.
1. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/common-platform-system-tested-in-criminal-courts
2. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hmcts-common-platform-participating-criminal-courts
