Criminal court statistics (quarterly): January to March 2015
Statistics on type and volume of cases received and processed through the criminal court system of England and Wales in January to March 2015.
Documents
Details
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) is seeking feedback on this publication so that we can assess how well it meets our users’ needs and make improvements where possible. If you have not already done so, please could you complete a short survey.
These statistics focus on key trends in case volume and progression through the criminal court system in England and Wales. There is also information concerning the enforcement of financial penalties in England and Wales.
- following a steady increase in the number of outstanding cases in the Crown Court, there has been a small decrease in quarter 1 2015
For the first time since the beginning of 2013, the number of disposals in the first quarter of 2015 was higher than the number of receipts, resulting in a 4% drop in outstanding cases from the previous quarter.
- the overall number of days from offence to completion increased from 304 days to 328 days between quarter 1 of 2013 and quarter 1 of 2015
Although the time spent at the magistrates’ courts has fallen substantially since the abolition of committals, from 26 days to 5 days, the time from receipt in the Crown Court to completion has increased, resulting in an overall increase to timeliness.
- the average waiting time between the date of sending a case to the Crown Court and the start of the substantive hearing has increased for trial cases
Triable-either-way cases have seen an increase of 5.6 weeks in average waiting times when comparing quarter 1 of 2015 with quarter 1 of 2013 while indictable only cases have seen a 3.3 week increase over the same period.
- experimental statistics on unrepresented defendants, produced for the first time, show that the proportion of defendants in the Crown Court who had representation has remained stable between 2010 and 2014: 94% of defendants were represented by a solicitor or advocate at the first hearing and 6% were not represented or representation was not known in 2014, compared to 95% and 5% respectively in 2010.
In addition to 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 (Civil Justice), Minister of State (Policing, Crime, Criminal Justice and Victims), Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Women, Equalities and Family Justice), Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Prisons, Probation and Rehabilitation), Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Courts and Legal Aid), Lord Chief Justice, Permanent Secretary, Director General of Finance and Public Services, Director General of Criminal Justice, Policy Advisor (Victim and Criminal Proceedings), Policy Advisor (MOJ Strategy), Policy Advisor (Justice Reform Strategy), Policy Advisor (Criminal Procedure), Chief Statistician, Press Office and relevant Special Advisers.
Her Majesty’s Court Service:
Chief Executive, Director of Crime, Head of Crown Court Improvement Branch, Head of Criminal Enforcement, Deputy Director Criminal Enforcement, Deputy Director of Legal Services, Court Users and Summary Justice Reform, Head of Communications, and Performance Information Manager.