Civometry

Ministry of Justice · offence group: Drug offences

Prosecutions: Drug offences

4 periods to Year ending March 2026

170,379defendants

Prosecutions for Drug offences totalled 170,379 defendants in the 4 periods to Year ending March 2026, down 0.2% (407) on the 4 periods before.

  1. Ministry of Justice dataset
  2. Q3_2
  3. Offence group=Drug offences
  4. column “2026”
  5. 48629 per period
  6. published 30 July 2026

Year ending March 2016 to Year ending March 2026

Prosecutions by offence group: Year ending March 2016 to Year ending March 2026ConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabourLabour020k40k201620182020202220242026Year ending March 2016: 49,082 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2017: 45,016 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2018: 40,050 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2019: 40,307 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2020: 44,235 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2021: 44,708 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2022: 41,536 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2023: 38,330 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2024: 39,568 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2025: 43,852 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2026: 48,629 defendants · published 30 July 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

Defendants proceeded against at magistrates' courts in England and Wales in the twelve months ending March, split by the offence group of the principal offence.

The indictable and summary subtotals the table also prints, which are left out so the groups sum to the total.

Source

Dataset
Criminal justice statistics quarterly: overview tables
Release
Year ending March 2026, published 30 July 2026 · sha256 60c19d2d5ff2446d…
All values
Prosecutions by offence group