Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2024
Overview of trends in the use of out of court disposals, defendants prosecuted, offenders convicted, remand and sentencing decisions in England and Wales.
Applies to England and Wales
Documents
Details
This report presents key statistics on activity in the criminal justice system for England and Wales. It provides information up to the year ending June 2024 with accompanying commentary, analysis and presentation of longer-term trends.
Statistician’s comment
Demand on the criminal justice system continues to grow, including throughput into the criminal courts. The volume of prosecutions for indictable offences was at its highest level since the year to June 2018. Whilst convictions for indictable offences are at a 4-year high.
This rise in prosecutions and convictions for more serious offences has also increased the demand on the prison system – whilst the proportion of defendants remanded into custody only increased by one percentage point, this covers the highest volume of defendants dealt with in the last 5 years. Additionally, the number of offenders receiving custodial sentences on has continued to increase.
For defendants sentenced to custody, the average custodial sentence length reduced slightly but maintains series highs seen over the last few years - for the most serious indictable only offences, this is now around 70% higher than it was in 2011.