Last Sunday (15 February 2026), the Sentencing Academy published a series of key facts and statistics on sentencing trends over the last 20 years (200-2024). This is just the latest addition to their newly launched Sentencing Hub which brings together information, research findings, and statistics relating to sentencing in an easy to access place.
I have reproduced some of the key charts below. The first image shows the very significant fall in the volume of sentences being passed from almost 1.5 million in 2005 to less than 900,000 last year.
The second image shows the decline in community orders and increase in imprisonment and suspended sentences over this time period.
The first chart below shows that more than two thirds of all sentences are fines. The second chart shows that between 2005 and 2024, the use of fines increased, while the proportionate use of Community Orders more than halved. The proportionate use of Immediate Custody has been stable at around 7%.
You can see the rest of the charts which analyse the average prison population, immediate rate of imprisonment and average length of custodial sentences among other trends here.
Thanks to Andy Aitchison for kind permission to use the header image in this post. You can see Andy’s work here
