Civometry

Ministry of Justice · Criminal justice statistics quarterly: overview tables

Custody rate

Year ending March 2026 Final

7.5%

Custody rate was 7.5% in the year ending March 2026, up 0.6 percentage points from 6.9% in the year ending March 2025.

▲ +0.6 percentage points against Year ending March 2025 (year on year)

  1. Ministry of Justice percentage
  2. Year ending March 2026
  3. published 30 July 2026
  4. Table Q5.2b
  5. row “Offence type=All offence types; Offence group=All offence types total”
  6. column “2026”
  7. cell value 0.075

The series is rising. Rule: up 8.7% from Year ending March 2025 to Year ending March 2026.

Year ending March 2016 to Year ending March 2026

Custody rate: Year ending March 2016 to Year ending March 2026ConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabourLabour0%2%4%6%201620182020202220242026Year ending March 2016: 7.2% percent · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2017: 7.3% percent · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2018: 7.4% percent · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2019: 6.8% percent · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2020: 6.4% percent · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2021: 7.7% percent · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2022: 6.5% percent · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2023: 6.2% percent · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2024: 6.5% percent · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2025: 6.9% percent · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2026: 7.5% percent · published 30 July 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

The percentage of offenders sentenced at criminal courts in England and Wales in the twelve months ending March who received an immediate custodial sentence, across all offence types.

People often confuse this with

Percentage change ≠ Percentage-point changeA rate moving from 4% to 5% has risen by one percentage point and by 25%. This site describes changes in rates in points, never as a percentage of a percentage.

What this doesn’t measure

The custody rate for any one offence type (the all-offence rate is dominated by summary motoring offences, which rarely lead to custody), or sentence length.

Important caveat

The custody rate is the number of offenders given an immediate custodial sentence divided by the total number sentenced, as calculated and published by the Ministry of Justice. The all-offence rate is dominated by summary motoring offences, which rarely lead to custody, so it is far lower than the rate for indictable offences and moves with the mix of offences sentenced as well as with sentencing practice. It is not published where fewer than five offenders were sentenced.

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 justice statistics quarterly: overview tables
Release
Year ending March 2026, published 30 July 2026
Source file
overview-tables-March-2026.ods
File SHA-256
60c19d2d5ff2446d61a6196c6b6c8e3aa4dd211e6c455b13c5c68445892b591a
Retrieved
2 September 2026
Sheet
Q5_2b
Table
Table Q5.2b
Row
Offence type=All offence types; Offence group=All offence types total
Column
2026
Cell value
0.075 (× 100 = 7.5% percent)
Geography
England and Wales
Unit
percent
API
/api/metrics/custody_rate · /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 2024–6.5%Year ending March 20247.5%Year ending March 2026↑ 15.4%
Conservative 2019–20246.8%Year ending March 20196.5%Year ending March 2024↓ 4.4%
Conservative 2017–20197.3%Year ending March 20176.8%Year ending March 2019↓ 6.8%

Full comparison with chart

Release
Year ending March 2026 · publication page
Last updated
30 July 2026
Next release expected
August 2026 (estimated from the usual cadence)