Criminal court statistics quarterly: April to June 2019
Type and volume of cases received and processed through the criminal court system of England and Wales, including statistics on case timeliness. Also includes statistics on the use of language interpreter and translation services in courts and tribunals, England and Wales.
Applies to England and Wales
Documents
Details
This is the quarterly Q2 2019 criminal courts statistics publication.
The statistics here focus on key trends in case volume and progression through the criminal court system in England and Wales. This also includes:
-
Management information concerning the enforcement of financial penalties in England and Wales;
-
Experimental statistics on ‘the use of language interpreter and translation services in courts and tribunals’.
Additional data tools and CSVs have also been provided.
The Crown Court information release is published as management information on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website
Key Findings
- The magistrates’ court workload has generally declined since 2016, and the volume of cases received and disposed both decreased slightly between Q2 2018 and Q2 2019 (down 1% and 2% respectively), whilst the volume of outstanding cases has increased slightly (up 1%).
- At the Crown Court, outstanding cases have fallen consistently since the end of 2014 and flattened in recent quarter. While the Q2 2019 figure is lower than a year ago, there has been a 1% increase in the latest quarter.
- The average number of days taken from first listing in the magistrates’ court to completion in the Crown Court was 163 days, a decrease of 8% since Q2 2018. This fall can be attributed to a reduction in the time taken from sending to the Crown Court to the main hearing. This fall is seen across all offences except criminal damage and arson. The largest decrease was seen for possession of weapons offences, decreasing by 19% from 107 days to 87 since last year.
- Total financial impositions fell by 2% between Q2 2018 and Q2 2019, to £153m, largely due to a 7% decrease in fines. The value of total outstanding financial impositions continued to rise, reaching £1.16 billion in Q2 2019.
- In Q2 2019, the number of completed language service requests remained broadly stable since last quarter. The number of complaints has increased, although this is believed to be due to increased awareness of the option to complain – the success rate of requests remained stable at 97% and the complaint rate remains 1%.
Criminal court statistics (quarterly), July to September 2019
The next criminal court statistics publication is scheduled for release in December 2019. In addition to the regular content, it will include experimental statistics on failure to appear warrants issued in magistrates’ courts in England and Wales.
Pre-release
In addition to Ministry of Justice (MOJ) professional and production staff, pre-release access to the quarterly statistics of up to 24 hours is granted to the following postholders:
Ministry of Justice
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice; Minister of State for Justice; Ministry of Justice spokesperson in the Lords; Lord Chief Justice; Permanent Secretary; Director General, Policy, Communications and Analysis; Director, Criminal Justice Policy; Deputy Director, Criminal Courts Policy; Criminal Court Reform Lead; Jurisdictional and Operational Support Manager; Head of Data and Analytical Services; Chief Statistician; Attorney General’s Office; 5 Press Officers and 7 Private Secretaries.
Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunals Service:
Chief Executive, HMCTS; Deputy Chief Executive, HMCTS; Deputy Director of Legal Services, Court Users and Summary Justice Reform; Head of Operational Performance; Head of Criminal Enforcement team, HMCTS; Head of data and management information, HMCTS; Head of Management Information Systems; Head of Communications; Head of News; Jurisdictional Operation manager and Head of Contracted Services and Performance for HMCTS Operations Directorate
Published 26 September 2019