Ministry of Justice · Criminal justice statistics quarterly: overview tables
Immediate custodial sentences
89,164offenders
Immediate custodial sentences were 89,164 offenders in the year ending March 2026, up 7.8% (6,415) from 82,749 in the year ending March 2025.
▲ 7.8% · +6,415 against Year ending March 2025 (year on year)
- Ministry of Justice count
- Year ending March 2026
- published 30 July 2026
- Table Q5.2a
- row “Offence type=All offence types; Offence group=All offence types total”
- column “2026”
- cell value 89164
The series is near its highest recorded level. Rule: within 5% of the highest value in the 11 periods published here.
Year ending March 2016 to Year ending March 2026
What this measures
The number of offenders sentenced to immediate custody at criminal courts in England and Wales in the twelve months ending March, including detention in a young offender institution and detention and training orders.
What this doesn’t measure
Suspended sentences, community sentences or fines, or the length of the sentences imposed.
Important caveat
Criminal justice statistics are on a principal-offence basis: where a defendant is dealt with for several offences, only the most serious is counted. Offences dealt with at a magistrates' court and then committed to the Crown Court are counted separately at each stage in the year each receives an outcome, and an individual may be convicted in a different year from the one they were prosecuted in, so the Ministry of Justice advises against calculating a conviction rate from these tables. Figures from 2017 onwards were reprocessed using improved methods ahead of the 2023 Q2 edition and trends should be compared with earlier periods with caution. Offence groupings are revised with each Offence Group Classification, and each quarterly edition revises the rolling twelve-month figures.
When the way this was measured changed
A series can move because the thing being measured changed, or because the way of measuring it changed. Each change below is marked on the chart, and says what the figures meant on either side of it.
April 2017 · methodology change
- Before
- Figures as originally processed.
- After
- Figures reprocessed ahead of the 2023 Q2 edition.
Figures from 2017 onwards were reprocessed ahead of the 2023 Q2 edition; the Ministry of Justice advises caution comparing trends from 2017 onwards with earlier periods.
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_2a
- Table
- Table Q5.2a
- Row
- Offence type=All offence types; Offence group=All offence types total
- Column
- 2026
- Cell value
- 89164
- Geography
- England and Wales
- Unit
- offenders
- API
- /api/metrics/custodial_sentences_total · /series · /vintages
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– | 73,970Year ending March 2024 | 89,164Year ending March 2026 | ↑ 20.5% |
| Conservative 2019–2024 | 81,768Year ending March 2019 | 73,970Year ending March 2024 | ↓ 9.5% |
| Conservative 2017–2019 | 90,181Year ending March 2017 | 81,768Year ending March 2019 | ↓ 9.3% |
- Release
- Year ending March 2026 · publication page
- Last updated
- 30 July 2026
- Next release expected
- August 2026 (estimated from the usual cadence)