Civometry

Ministry of Justice · offence group: Theft offences

Prosecutions: Theft offences

4 periods to Year ending March 2026

243,250defendants

Prosecutions for Theft offences totalled 243,250 defendants in the 4 periods to Year ending March 2026, up 17.1% (35,439) on the 4 periods before.

  1. Ministry of Justice dataset
  2. Q3_2
  3. Offence group=Theft offences
  4. column “2026”
  5. 76177 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 2026ConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabourLabour050k100k201620182020202220242026Year ending March 2016: 112,578 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2017: 97,770 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2018: 81,262 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2019: 70,685 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2020: 60,297 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2021: 38,941 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2022: 37,888 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2023: 42,800 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2024: 55,674 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2025: 68,599 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2026: 76,177 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