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Ministry of Justice · Criminal justice statistics quarterly: overview tables

Prosecutions

Year ending March 2026 Final

1,360,615defendants

Prosecutions were 1,360,615 defendants in the year ending March 2026, up 1.2% (16,063) from 1,344,552 in the year ending March 2025.

▲ 1.2% · +16,063 against Year ending March 2025 (year on year)

  1. Ministry of Justice count
  2. Year ending March 2026
  3. published 30 July 2026
  4. Table Q3.2
  5. row “Offence type=All offence types; Offence group=All offence types total”
  6. column “2026”
  7. cell value 1360615

Year ending March 2016 to Year ending March 2026

Prosecutions: Year ending March 2016 to Year ending March 2026ConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabourLabour0500k1m201620182020202220242026Before: Figures as originally processed. After: Figures reprocessed ahead of the 2023 Q2 edition.methodology changeYear ending March 2016: 1,493,801 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2017: 1,442,793 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2018: 1,353,888 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2019: 1,345,708 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2020: 1,318,738 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2021: 877,831 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2022: 1,115,215 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2023: 1,188,455 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2024: 1,271,059 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2025: 1,344,552 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2026: 1,360,615 defendants · published 30 July 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestDashed line: change in coverage or methodShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

Breakdowns

What this measures

The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates' courts in England and Wales in the twelve months ending March, on a principal-offence basis.

People often confuse this with

Arrest ≠ ConvictionAn arrest is a police power used on suspicion. A conviction is a court finding of guilt. Most arrests do not lead to a charge, and arrests are counted by the Home Office while convictions are counted by the Ministry of Justice on a different basis and timescale.

What this doesn’t measure

Out-of-court disposals, or the outcome of the proceedings; the Ministry of Justice advises against dividing convictions by prosecutions to make a conviction rate.

Important caveat

Criminal justice statistics are on a principal-offence basis: where a defendant is dealt with for several offences, only the most serious is counted. Offences dealt with at a magistrates' court and then committed to the Crown Court are counted separately at each stage in the year each receives an outcome, and an individual may be convicted in a different year from the one they were prosecuted in, so the Ministry of Justice advises against calculating a conviction rate from these tables. Figures from 2017 onwards were reprocessed using improved methods ahead of the 2023 Q2 edition and trends should be compared with earlier periods with caution. Offence groupings are revised with each Offence Group Classification, and each quarterly edition revises the rolling twelve-month figures.

When the way this was measured changed

A series can move because the thing being measured changed, or because the way of measuring it changed. Each change below is marked on the chart, and says what the figures meant on either side of it.

April 2017 · methodology change

Before
Figures as originally processed.
After
Figures reprocessed ahead of the 2023 Q2 edition.

Figures from 2017 onwards were reprocessed ahead of the 2023 Q2 edition; the Ministry of Justice advises caution comparing trends from 2017 onwards with earlier periods.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher
Ministry of Justice
Publication
Criminal justice statistics quarterly: overview tables
Release
Year ending March 2026, published 30 July 2026
Source file
overview-tables-March-2026.ods
File SHA-256
60c19d2d5ff2446d61a6196c6b6c8e3aa4dd211e6c455b13c5c68445892b591a
Retrieved
2 September 2026
Sheet
Q3_2
Table
Table Q3.2
Row
Offence type=All offence types; Offence group=All offence types total
Column
2026
Cell value
1360615
Geography
England and Wales
Unit
defendants
API
/api/metrics/prosecutions_total · /series · /vintages

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Labour 2024–1,271,059Year ending March 20241,360,615Year ending March 2026↑ 7.0%
Conservative 2019–20241,345,708Year ending March 20191,271,059Year ending March 2024↓ 5.5%
Conservative 2017–20191,442,793Year ending March 20171,345,708Year ending March 2019↓ 6.7%

Full comparison with chart

Release
Year ending March 2026 · publication page
Last updated
30 July 2026
Next release expected
August 2026 (estimated from the usual cadence)