Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: September 2025
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
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This report presents key statistics on activity in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) for England and Wales. It provides commentary for the 12-month period of October 2024 to September 2025 (referred to as the ‘latest year’). The contents of this bulletin will be of interest to government policy makers in the development of policy and their subsequent monitoring and evaluation. Others will be interested in the way different crimes are dealt with in the CJS and trends in sentencing outcomes.
Statistician’s comment
The volume of prosecutions and convictions reached their highest levels since year ending September 2017, reflecting the increased demand entering the criminal courts with police charge volumes increasing.
The use of out of court disposals increased in the latest year, reversing a downward trend seen since year ending September 2020. This was due to the continued increase in community resolutions, which now account for around 80% of all out of court disposals.
Prosecutions increased for all indictable offence groups over the last year, and this was true for convictions bar robbery offences. The number of offenders convicted for violence against the person, sexual offences and public order offences reached series highs since comparable records from year ending September 2010.
The number of offenders sentenced to immediate custody continued to increase and is at the highest level seen since year ending September 2017. The latest year shows a slight reduction in the average custodial sentence length, partly driven by an increase in the proportion of sentences that are for theft offences which attract shorter sentence lengths.