Ministry of Justice · Criminal court statistics quarterly
Crown Court median days from offence to completion
346days
Crown Court median days from offence to completion was 346 days in 2026 Q1, up 6.1% (20) from 326 in 2025 Q1.
▲ 6.1% · +20 against 2025 Q1 (same quarter previous year)
- Ministry of Justice estimate
- 2026 Q1
- published 25 June 2026
- Table T4
- row “2026 Q1”
- column “All criminal cases dealt with in the Crown Court: All - Offence to completion (Median) [note 54]”
- cell value 346
The series is rising. Rule: up 6.1% from 2025 Q1 to 2026 Q1.
2016 Q1 to 2026 Q1
What this measures
The median number of days from the offence to the completion of the case at the Crown Court, for defendants whose cases completed in the quarter and could be matched from first appearance at a magistrates' court through to completion.
What this doesn’t measure
Time spent waiting at the Crown Court alone (the measure includes time before charge and at the magistrates' court), the mean, or cases that could not be matched across court systems (typically 5 to 10 per cent).
Important caveat
Timeliness is measured for defendants whose cases completed in the quarter and could be matched from first appearance at a magistrates' court to completion in the Crown Court using probabilistic record linkage; the match rate is typically 90 to 95 per cent and unmatched cases are excluded. One offence is counted per defendant. The median is the 50th percentile of the number of days from offence to completion and includes time before charge and at the magistrates' court, not only time at the Crown Court. Cases with data quality issues, breaches and appeals are excluded.
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
- Release
- January to March 2026, published 25 June 2026
- Source file
- ccsq_2026Q1.ods
- File SHA-256
- b6823b9b68923d7039050194eb303b8fc1a1071f5f6a555585d15cf21146dd40
- Retrieved
- 2 September 2026
- Sheet
- Table_T4
- Table
- Table T4
- Row
- 2026 Q1
- Column
- All criminal cases dealt with in the Crown Court: All - Offence to completion (Median) [note 54]
- Cell value
- 346
- Geography
- England and Wales
- Unit
- days
- API
- /api/metrics/crown_court_median_days · /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– | 3342024 Q2 | 3462026 Q1 | ↑ 3.6% |
| Conservative 2019–2024 | 2522019 Q3 | 3342024 Q2 | ↑ 32.5% |
| Conservative 2017–2019 | 2362017 Q1 | 2522019 Q3 | ↑ 6.8% |
- Release
- January to March 2026 · publication page
- Last updated
- 25 June 2026
- Next release expected
- September 2026 (estimated from the usual cadence)