Stately

ONS, Home Office and Ministry of Justice statistics

The criminal justice funnel

From offence to prison, the official count at each stage, showing where cases leave the system. The stages come from different publishers on different bases and do not follow one set of cases.

Stage by stage

Each stage is the latest official figure for that stage. The stages do not follow one set of people or cases; a decision this year is on a claim from an earlier year.

  1. Offences experienced4,333,000 incidents Year ending March 2026 · down 5.7%
    Crime Survey estimate of incidents against households, whether or not reported.
  2. Recorded by police5,235,213 offences Year ending March 2026 · down 1.4%
    Offences the police recorded; excludes fraud and crimes against businesses.
  3. Charged or summonsed8.5% Year ending March 2026 · up 1.2 points
    Share of recorded offences with a charge or summons outcome.
  4. Arrests754,046 arrests Year ending March 2025 · up 4.6%
    Arrests for notifiable offences; a person can be arrested without a recorded offence being charged.
  5. Prosecutions1,360,615 defendants Year ending March 2026 · up 1.2%
    Defendants proceeded against at magistrates' courts.
  6. Convictions1,195,840 offenders Year ending March 2026 · down 0.1%
    Defendants found guilty.
  7. Custodial sentences89,164 offenders Year ending March 2026 · up 7.8%
    Immediate custody sentences.
  8. Prison population86,843 people Week beginning 24 August 2026 · up 0.1%
    People in prison on the latest Monday; a stock that also holds people sentenced in earlier years.

Court backlogs

Prison pressure

After sentence

People often confuse this with

Arrest ≠ ConvictionAn arrest is a police power used on suspicion. A conviction is a court finding of guilt. Most arrests do not lead to a charge, and arrests are counted by the Home Office while convictions are counted by the Ministry of Justice on a different basis and timescale.
Police recorded crime ≠ Crime Survey estimateRecorded crime counts offences the police record. The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimates crimes experienced by households, including those never reported. Recording practice changes move the police figure without any change in crime; the survey does not cover crimes against businesses or homicide.

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