Ministry of Justice · Criminal court statistics quarterly: Crown Court waiting times
Crown Court median waiting time
11weeks
Crown Court median waiting time was 11 weeks in 2026 Q1, up 4.2% (0) from 10 in 2025 Q1.
▲ 4.2% · +0 against 2025 Q1 (same quarter previous year)
- Ministry of Justice estimate
- 2026 Q1
- published 25 June 2026
- Table C6
- row “2026 Q1”
- column “All cases closed: Median”
- cell value 10.5714285714286
2016 Q1 to 2026 Q1
The chart as a table
| Period | Crown Court median waiting time |
|---|---|
| 2016 Q1 | 12 weeks |
| 2016 Q2 | 11 weeks |
| 2016 Q3 | 9 weeks |
| 2016 Q4 | 9 weeks |
| 2017 Q1 | 9 weeks |
| 2017 Q2 | 8 weeks |
| 2017 Q3 | 8 weeks |
| 2017 Q4 | 9 weeks |
| 2018 Q1 | 9 weeks |
| 2018 Q2 | 9 weeks |
| 2018 Q3 | 8 weeks |
| 2018 Q4 | 8 weeks |
| 2019 Q1 | 8 weeks |
| 2019 Q2 | 7 weeks |
| 2019 Q3 | 7 weeks |
| 2019 Q4 | 8 weeks |
| 2020 Q1 | 8 weeks |
| 2020 Q2 | 10 weeks |
| 2020 Q3 | 9 weeks |
| 2020 Q4 | 8 weeks |
| 2021 Q1 | 10 weeks |
| 2021 Q2 | 11 weeks |
| 2021 Q3 | 12 weeks |
| 2021 Q4 | 13 weeks |
| 2022 Q1 | 13 weeks |
| 2022 Q2 | 11 weeks |
| 2022 Q3 | 10 weeks |
| 2022 Q4 | 13 weeks |
| 2023 Q1 | 13 weeks |
| 2023 Q2 | 11 weeks |
| 2023 Q3 | 10 weeks |
| 2023 Q4 | 10 weeks |
| 2024 Q1 | 11 weeks |
| 2024 Q2 | 10 weeks |
| 2024 Q3 | 9 weeks |
| 2024 Q4 | 10 weeks |
| 2025 Q1 | 10 weeks |
| 2025 Q2 | 10 weeks |
| 2025 Q3 | 10 weeks |
| 2025 Q4 | 10 weeks |
| 2026 Q1 | 11 weeks |
What this measures
The median weeks a defendant waited from their case reaching the Crown Court to the start of its substantive hearing, across all cases closed in the quarter — trials, sentence cases and appeals.
What this doesn’t measure
Time at the magistrates' court or before charge, cases still waiting (only closed cases are measured, so the figure lags the backlog), or defendants whose waiting time could not be calculated.
Important caveat
Waiting time here is the weeks from the case reaching the Crown Court (committal or sending) to the start of the substantive hearing, for defendants whose cases CLOSED in the quarter — so a quarter with many old cases finally heard shows a longer wait, and the figure lags the backlog it reflects. Defendants whose waiting time could not be calculated are excluded and counted in the published tables. It excludes time at the magistrates' court and before charge, which the offence-to-completion measure includes.
Revision history
No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.
Source
- Publisher
- Ministry of Justice
- Publication
- Criminal court statistics quarterly: Crown Court waiting times
- Release
- January to March 2026, published 25 June 2026
- Source file
- ccsq_2026Q1.ods
- File SHA-256
- b6823b9b68923d7039050194eb303b8fc1a1071f5f6a555585d15cf21146dd40
- Retrieved
- 4 September 2026
- Sheet
- Table_C6
- Table
- Table C6
- Row
- 2026 Q1
- Column
- All cases closed: Median
- Cell value
- 10.5714285714286
- Geography
- England and Wales
- Unit
- weeks
- API
- /api/metrics/crown_court_waiting_weeks · /series · /vintages
Related metrics
Government periods
Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.
| Labour 2024– | 102024 Q2 | 112026 Q1 | ↑ 5.7% |
| Conservative 2019–2024 | 72019 Q3 | 102024 Q2 | ↑ 42.9% |
| Conservative 2017–2019 | 92017 Q1 | 72019 Q3 | ↓ 22.2% |
- Release
- January to March 2026 · publication page
- Last updated
- 25 June 2026
- Next release expected
- September 2026 (estimated from the usual cadence)