Criminal court statistics quarterly: October to December 2020
Type and volume of cases received and processed through the criminal court system of England and Wales, including statistics on case timeliness.
Applies to England and Wales
Documents
Details
This is the quarterly Q4 2020 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:
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Management information concerning the enforcement of financial penalties in England and Wales;
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Experimental statistics on ‘the use of language interpreter and translation services in courts and tribunals;
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Experimental statistics on Failure to Appear Warrants at magistrates’ courts in England and Wales.
Additional data tools and CSVs have also been provided.
Statisticians comment
“This report covers the period to the end of December 2020 and shows the continued impact of COVID-19 on the criminal courts.
Following the limited operation of the criminal courts and the gradual reintroduction of jury trials during the report period, the figures published today show the continued recovery in the system. This can be more clearly seen at the magistrates’ courts, where disposals remained above receipts and the outstanding caseload has consistently fallen.
Some of the magistrates’ court disposals will feed directly through to the Crown Court, where receipts have maintained higher levels seen in Q3 2020. Disposals have increased but at a slower rate than receipts, as a result the outstanding caseload has continued to rise.
We are publishing experimental analysis on the nature of the outstanding caseload for the first time. This shows that the age of outstanding cases has increased sharply due to the COVID-19 pandemic response and the proportion of cases which have been outstanding for more than a year has increased markedly.
The trends at both magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court continue beyond the National Statistics series into more recent management information published by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) – which are highlighted in this document.”
Criminal court statistics quarterly, January to March 2021
The next criminal court statistics publication is scheduled for release in June 2021.
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 post holders:
Ministry of Justice
Permanent Secretary; Director General, Policy, Communications and Analysis; Director, Criminal Justice Policy; Deputy Director, Criminal Courts Policy; Criminal Court Reform Lead; Courts and Tribunal Recovery Unit; Jurisdictional and Operational Support Manager; Head of Data and Analytical Services; Chief Statistician; 5 Press Officers.
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
Bar Council
Chair of the Bar Council, Director of Communications, Research Manager
Home Office
1 Senior Policy Official and 1 Statistician