Criminal court statistics quarterly: October to December 2024
Source: gov.uk (2025-03-27)

Type and volume of cases received and processed through the criminal court system of England and Wales, including statistics on case timeliness.

This is the quarterly Q4 2024 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:
- Experimental statistics on ‘the use of language interpreter and translation services in courts and tribunals;
Additional data tools and CSVs have also been provided.

Statisticians comment

This report covers the period to the end of December 2024.

This is the second release of data following the implementation of the “One Crown” project which has aligned definitions, methodologies and data processing for all published Crown Court measures across MOJ and HMCTS. Following an external quality review in December, the data have undergone a review by the Office for Statistics regulation which agreed with the earlier review to find significant confidence in the data and retain the Accredited Official Statistics status of this release.

As part of the “One Crown” implementation, we have continued to improve our Crown Court methodology and align HMCTS and MoJ processes. We have reviewed and improved all remaining headline Crown Court measures. This approach ensures that we continue to release robust, trustworthy and high value data. The impact of change is small, and trends are largely unchanged. Further detail concerning each change and the impacts on published series are available in the consultation document.

The demand on the criminal courts continues to grow with receipt volumes increasing at both the magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court. Receipts in the last year are higher than they have been across the series and are 13% higher than the previous year.

Disposals volumes have increased but remain below receipts at both magistrates and Crown courts resulting in the open caseload continuing to grow. At the Crown Court the open caseload continued to report a series peak, reaching 74,651 cases at the end of December 2024.

In the latest period trial effectiveness has remained stable and timeliness has fallen back from series peaks – both remain above pre-COVID levels seen in 2019.

Criminal court statistics quarterly, January to March 2025

The next criminal court statistics publication is scheduled for release on 27th June 2025.

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

Private Offices; Permanent Secretary; Director General, Policy; Director General, Chief Operating Officer Group; Direct, Courts and Family Justice; Director Analysis; Director, Chief Data Officer; Deputy Director, Criminal Justice Strategy and Criminal Courts Policy; Criminal Court Policy and Procedure; Criminal Court Insights; Deputy Director, Courts and Tribunals Joint Unit; Courts and Tribunal Joint Unit; Deputy Director, RASSO and Domestic Abuse Policy; Rape Review; Courts Victim Experience and Attrition; Deputy Head of News; 3 Press Officers.

Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunals Service

Chief Executive, HMCTS; Chief Finance Officer, HMCTS; Director of Operations, HMCTS; Director, Strategy Analysis and Planning; Director, Communications; Head of External Communications, HMCTS; Deputy Director of Analysis and Performance (x2); Crime reporting and analysis; Deputy Director, Crime Live Service Owner; Crime Service Manager (x2); Deputy Director, Intelligent Client Function and Contract Services Division; Operational Contract Manager; Contract Support Officer.

Judicial Office

Chief Executive; Head of Digital and Data; Data Analyst (x2)

No.10

Private Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs; Justice and Home Affairs Policy Unit; Communications; Analysts