Ministry of Justice · Offender management statistics quarterly: prison population · 13 values
Sentenced prison population by offence group
The prison population under an immediate custodial sentence in England and Wales at the end of each quarter, split by the offence group of the principal offence.
at June 2026 · total 69,974 people · published 30 July 2026
| Offence group | Latest | Share | A year earlier | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence against the person | 24,012 | 34.3% | 23,933 | ▲ 0.3% |
| Sexual offences | 15,897 | 22.7% | 15,127 | ▲ 5.1% |
| Drug offences | 8,501 | 12.1% | 8,828 | ▼ 3.7% |
| Theft offences | 6,348 | 9.1% | 6,061 | ▲ 4.7% |
| Robbery | 4,840 | 6.9% | 5,424 | ▼ 10.8% |
| Public order offences | 2,847 | 4.1% | 2,460 | ▲ 15.7% |
| Miscellaneous crimes against society | 2,516 | 3.6% | 2,292 | ▲ 9.8% |
| Possession of weapons | 2,449 | 3.5% | 2,465 | ▼ 0.6% |
| Summary non-motoring | 893 | 1.3% | 850 | ▲ 5.1% |
| Criminal damage and arson | 886 | 1.3% | 893 | ▼ 0.8% |
| Fraud offences | 451 | 0.6% | 446 | ▲ 1.1% |
| Summary motoring | 222 | 0.3% | 236 | ▼ 5.9% |
| Offence not recorded | 112 | 0.2% | 218 | ▼ 48.6% |
Source
- Dataset
- Offender management statistics quarterly: prison population · sheet Table_1_Q_5
- Rows
- Sex=Male and female; Age group=All ages; Offence group=All offences; values are the sum of the published rows for each offence group and period.
- Caveat
- People on remand, or the total sentenced population as counted by custody type group in Table 1.Q.1, which also includes a small number of sentenced prisoners outside this table's definition.
- Parent metric
- Sentenced prison population
- API
- /api/metrics/prison_population_by_offence_group/vintages