Ministry of Justice · Criminal justice statistics quarterly: overview tables · 13 values
Prosecutions by offence group
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.
latest 12 months to Year ending March 2026; 1 quarters summed · total 1,360,615 defendants · published 30 July 2026
| Offence group | Latest 12 months | Share | Previous 12 months | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summary motoring | 809,347 | 59.5% | 765,021 | ▲ 5.8% |
| Summary non-motoring | 267,039 | 19.6% | 313,181 | ▼ 14.7% |
| Theft offences | 76,177 | 5.6% | 68,599 | ▲ 11% |
| Violence against the person | 60,128 | 4.4% | 63,131 | ▼ 4.8% |
| Drug offences | 48,629 | 3.6% | 43,852 | ▲ 10.9% |
| Miscellaneous crimes against society | 29,087 | 2.1% | 27,116 | ▲ 7.3% |
| Public order offences | 23,690 | 1.7% | 20,700 | ▲ 14.4% |
| Sexual offences | 16,454 | 1.2% | 13,989 | ▲ 17.6% |
| Possession of weapons | 15,956 | 1.2% | 15,340 | ▲ 4% |
| Robbery | 5,461 | 0.4% | 5,456 | ▲ 0.1% |
| Fraud offences | 5,263 | 0.4% | 4,844 | ▲ 8.6% |
| Criminal damage and arson | 3,384 | 0.2% | 3,323 | ▲ 1.8% |
| Offence unknown | 0 | 0% | 0 | — |
Source
- Dataset
- Criminal justice statistics quarterly: overview tables · sheet Q3_2
- Rows
- Offence group=All offence types total; values are the sum of the published rows for each offence group and period.
- Caveat
- The indictable and summary subtotals the table also prints, which are left out so the groups sum to the total.
- Parent metric
- Prosecutions
- API
- /api/metrics/prosecutions_by_offence_group/vintages