Criminal court statistics (quarterly): October to December 2017
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, to December 2017.
Documents
Details
This is the quarterly 2017 Q4 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
- Despite a 5% decrease in magistrates receipts in Q4 2017, they remained higher than disposals for a second consecutive quarter, which resulted in the number of outstanding cases increasing by 4% in Q4 2017.
- Crown Court disposals remained higher than receipts in the quarter, continuing to drive the decrease in outstanding cases to 37,600 in Q4 2017, the lowest number in the quarterly time series.
- In Q4 2017 just over half (51%) of trials in the Crown Court were effective, 35% were cracked and 15% were ineffective.
- For cases completing in the Crown Court, the average number of days from first listing to completion in the Crown Court increased from 172 days in Q3 2017 to 176 days in Q4 2017, the first increase since Q4 2016. • Total financial impositions have decreased by 7% in the latest quarter, mostly driven by the decrease in fines and costs.
Use of language interpreter and translation services
The success rate for completed service requests was 98% in Q4 2017, the same as the previous quarter.
Annual criminal court statistics, June 2018
The annual criminal court statistics will include the same content as previous annual publication, such as including updates on unrepresented defendants. It will also include new Crown Court tables by offence such as election type and defendants by result and plea.
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; 5 Press Officers and 12 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; Jurisdictional Operation manager and Head of Contracted Services and Performance for HMCTS Operations Directorate .