Out of Court Resolutions

The rise in OOCRs is attributable to the increased use of community resolutions which went up by 9% compared to last year to the highest total ever of 189,000.

There was a decrease of 8% across all other OOCR types combined compared with the previous year. This consists of a decrease of 4% in cautions and a 56% decrease in other resolutions (cannabis/khat warnings and penalty notices for disorder), the lowest in the series.

Although caution volumes decreased, there were small increases in those issued for possession of weapons, public order offences, miscellaneous crimes against society and fraud offences. The overall cautioning rate has increased slightly but remained around 8%.

Prosecutions and Convictions

The number of prosecutions for the more serious indictable offences increased by 3%, with increases across most indictable offence groups. These included a 15% increase for sexual offences (up by 2,100), a 10% increase in public order offences (up by 2,200), and a 9% increase for theft offences (up by 6,600).

However, prosecutions for violence against the person decreased by 11% in the latest year (down by 7,000). This was largely due to reductions in prosecutions for assaulting an emergency worker, which almost halved (down by 7,600, or 46%) following revised CPS guidance for assault on emergency worker offences.

Convictions for indictable offences increased to 178,900, up by 4% from the previous year and the highest seen since year ending June 2017, with the largest increase seen in public order offences (up by 13% or 2,200).

At the Crown Court, 59,000 offenders were convicted, an increase of 3% from the previous year, with 56,000 offenders convicted of indictable offences, and increases seen across most offence groups.

Sentencing

The sentencing figures reveal the ever-increasing pressures on the criminal justice system and prison capacity in particular. 

Across the criminal courts, there were 86,700 offenders sentenced to immediate custody – this represents an increase of 2% on the previous year and is the highest level seen since year ending June 2018, largely due to increases at magistrates’ courts following increased magistrates sentencing powers.

The custody rate for indictable offences had little change on the previous year (33%) but is higher than year ending June 2017 (31%). The highest custody rates in the latest year were seen for robbery and sexual offences, at 61% and 54% respectively.

• At magistrates’ courts, custodial sentences of over 6 months and up to and including 12 months continued to rise, increasing from 2,000 to 3,500 in year ending June 2026. This increase follows the extension of magistrates’ sentencing powers (MSP) in November 2024. The increase in 6 to 12 month custodial sentences suggests that more offenders are being sentenced by magistrates’ courts rather than being sent to the Crown Court for trial or sentencing.

• At the Crown Court, custodial sentences of over 6 months and up to and including 12 months decreased by 12%, while custodial sentences of over 12 months increased by 4%. The decrease in shorter custodial sentences, as we have seen, coincides with the increase in magistrates’ sentencing powers and the reduction in offenders appearing for sentencing after conviction at magistrates’ courts.

In the latest year, the overall average custodial sentence length (ACSL) was 20.5 months, up 0.6 months from the previous year. Despite small fluctuations in recent years, it was 3.7 months higher than in year ending June 2017.

Changes in the cases dealt with by courts following the extension of magistrates’ sentencing powers have contributed to increases in the overall ACSL for indictable offences across both jurisdictions. The ACSL for indictable offences increased by 0.8 months to 22.8 months in the latest year. This included increases in most indictable offence groups, most notably a 3.0 month rise for violence against the person offences.

This increase in the length of time that people are sent to prison also quite clearly contributes to the pressures on prison capacity which makes it seem unlikely that the Government will be able to reduce or stop its increasingly unpopular early release schemes.

Thanks to Vitaly Gariev for kind permission to use the header image in this post which was previously published on Unsplash