Criminal court statistics (quarterly): July to September 2018
The latest statistics on type and volume of cases received and processed through the criminal court system including statistics on the use of language interpreter and translation services in courts and tribunals, England and Wales, July to September 2018.
Applies to England and Wales
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Details
This is the quarterly 2018 Q3 criminal courts publication, and the statistics here focus on key trends in case volume and progression through the criminal court system in England and Wales, including statistics on the use of language interpreter and translation services in courts and tribunals. There is also information concerning the enforcement of financial penalties in England and Wales.
The Crown Court information release is published as management information on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website.
Criminal courts
- Receipts in to the magistrates’ courts continue to fall, down 3% on the previous quarter and 4% on the previous year. This is broadly in line with trends in police charges (down 7% in the 12 months to June 2018) and proceedings at magistrates’ courts (down 4% in the 12 months to June 2018).
- Despite a 3% decrease in magistrates’ disposals in Q3 2018, they remained higher than receipts for a third consecutive quarter – meaning outstanding cases fell (2%).
- Similarly, Crown Court disposals remained higher than receipts, continuing the decrease in outstanding cases to 33,400 in Q3 2018 (down 5% on previous quarter and 15% on the previous year).
- Outstanding violence against the person cases decreased to 6,700, whilst continuing to have the highest volume of receipts, disposals and outstanding cases in the Crown Court.
- The average number of days from first listing to completion in the Crown Court for all offences decreased from 177 days in Q2 2018 to 174 days in Q3 2018, remaining stable since the start of 2017. For fraud and sexual offences were the offence groups that took the longest time to complete, the average number of days from first listing to completion increased by 46 days (19%) for fraud and 15 days (6%) for sexual offences.
- Total financial impositions have decreased by 6% in Q3 2018, mostly driven by a decrease of nearly £7.4m in fines.
Use of language interpreter and translation services
- The success rate for completed language interpreter and translation service requests remained the same at about 97%
- The complaint rate remained at 1%.
- The number of ‘off-contract’ language request increased by 50% in Q3 2018 compared to Q2 2018.
Criminal Court statistics quarterly, March 2019
The next criminal court statistics quarterly will include the same content as previous quarterly publications.
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:
MOJ
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; Chief Financial Officer; Director, Criminal Justice Policy; Deputy Director, Criminal Courts Policy; Criminal Court Reform Lead; Jurisdictional and Operational Support Manager; Head of Analytical Services; Chief Statistician; Attorney General’s Office; 8 Press Officers and 11 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