Civometry

Ministry of Justice · plea: Guilty

Crown Court median waiting time for trial: Guilty

4 periods to 2026 Q1

45 weeks

Crown Court median waiting time for trial for Guilty totalled 45 weeks in the 4 periods to 2026 Q1, up 4.7% (2) on the 4 periods before.

  1. Ministry of Justice dataset
  2. Table_C7
  3. 2026 Q1
  4. column “Guilty: Median [note 24]”
  5. 12.1428571428571 per period
  6. published 25 June 2026

2016 Q1 to 2026 Q1

Crown Court median waiting time for trial by plea: 2016 Q1 to 2026 Q1ConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabourLabour05102016201820202022202420262016 Q1: 12 weeks · published 25 June 20262016 Q2: 9 weeks · published 25 June 20262016 Q3: 6 weeks · published 25 June 20262016 Q4: 5 weeks · published 25 June 20262017 Q1: 5 weeks · published 25 June 20262017 Q2: 5 weeks · published 25 June 20262017 Q3: 5 weeks · published 25 June 20262017 Q4: 5 weeks · published 25 June 20262018 Q1: 5 weeks · published 25 June 20262018 Q2: 6 weeks · published 25 June 20262018 Q3: 5 weeks · published 25 June 20262018 Q4: 5 weeks · published 25 June 20262019 Q1: 5 weeks · published 25 June 20262019 Q2: 5 weeks · published 25 June 20262019 Q3: 5 weeks · published 25 June 20262019 Q4: 5 weeks · published 25 June 20262020 Q1: 5 weeks · published 25 June 20262020 Q2: 8 weeks · published 25 June 20262020 Q3: 8 weeks · published 25 June 20262020 Q4: 7 weeks · published 25 June 20262021 Q1: 8 weeks · published 25 June 20262021 Q2: 9 weeks · published 25 June 20262021 Q3: 10 weeks · published 25 June 20262021 Q4: 11 weeks · published 25 June 20262022 Q1: 11 weeks · published 25 June 20262022 Q2: 9 weeks · published 25 June 20262022 Q3: 9 weeks · published 25 June 20262022 Q4: 11 weeks · published 25 June 20262023 Q1: 12 weeks · published 25 June 20262023 Q2: 11 weeks · published 25 June 20262023 Q3: 10 weeks · published 25 June 20262023 Q4: 11 weeks · published 25 June 20262024 Q1: 11 weeks · published 25 June 20262024 Q2: 11 weeks · published 25 June 20262024 Q3: 10 weeks · published 25 June 20262024 Q4: 11 weeks · published 25 June 20262025 Q1: 11 weeks · published 25 June 20262025 Q2: 11 weeks · published 25 June 20262025 Q3: 11 weeks · published 25 June 20262025 Q4: 11 weeks · published 25 June 20262026 Q1: 12 weeks · published 25 June 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover, tap or use arrow keys to read a value; tap again to unpin
The chart as a table
PeriodCrown Court median waiting time for trial by plea
2016 Q112 weeks
2016 Q29 weeks
2016 Q36 weeks
2016 Q45 weeks
2017 Q15 weeks
2017 Q25 weeks
2017 Q35 weeks
2017 Q45 weeks
2018 Q15 weeks
2018 Q26 weeks
2018 Q35 weeks
2018 Q45 weeks
2019 Q15 weeks
2019 Q25 weeks
2019 Q35 weeks
2019 Q45 weeks
2020 Q15 weeks
2020 Q28 weeks
2020 Q38 weeks
2020 Q47 weeks
2021 Q18 weeks
2021 Q29 weeks
2021 Q310 weeks
2021 Q411 weeks
2022 Q111 weeks
2022 Q29 weeks
2022 Q39 weeks
2022 Q411 weeks
2023 Q112 weeks
2023 Q211 weeks
2023 Q310 weeks
2023 Q411 weeks
2024 Q111 weeks
2024 Q211 weeks
2024 Q310 weeks
2024 Q411 weeks
2025 Q111 weeks
2025 Q211 weeks
2025 Q311 weeks
2025 Q411 weeks
2026 Q112 weeks

What this measures

The median weeks defendants sent for trial waited before their trial started, split by how the case resolved — guilty plea, not guilty (a contested trial), dropped, or other. Contested trials wait far longer than cases that end in a guilty plea.

The plea entered at the start (the split is by final outcome), or waits for cases still open.

Source

Dataset
Criminal court statistics quarterly: Crown Court waiting times
Release
January to March 2026, published 25 June 2026 · sha256 b6823b9b68923d70…
All values
Crown Court median waiting time for trial by plea