Civometry

Ministry of Justice · offence group: Possession of weapons

Prosecutions: Possession of weapons

4 periods to Year ending March 2026

60,347defendants

Prosecutions for Possession of weapons totalled 60,347 defendants in the 4 periods to Year ending March 2026, up 4.3% (2,514) on the 4 periods before.

  1. Ministry of Justice dataset
  2. Q3_2
  3. Offence group=Possession of weapons
  4. column “2026”
  5. 15956 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 2026ConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabourLabour05k10k15k201620182020202220242026Year ending March 2016: 14,104 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2017: 14,994 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2018: 14,462 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2019: 15,316 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2020: 15,154 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2021: 13,294 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2022: 14,069 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2023: 14,258 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2024: 14,793 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2025: 15,340 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2026: 15,956 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