Civometry

Ministry of Justice · offence group: Sexual offences

Prosecutions: Sexual offences

4 periods to Year ending March 2026

53,127defendants

Prosecutions for Sexual offences totalled 53,127 defendants in the 4 periods to Year ending March 2026, up 70.4% (21,947) on the 4 periods before.

  1. Ministry of Justice dataset
  2. Q3_2
  3. Offence group=Sexual offences
  4. column “2026”
  5. 16454 per period
  6. published 30 July 2026

Year ending March 2016 to Year ending March 2026

Prosecutions by offence group: Year ending March 2016 to Year ending March 2026ConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabourLabour05k10k15k201620182020202220242026Year ending March 2016: 12,731 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2017: 12,307 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2018: 10,214 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2019: 7,218 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2020: 7,611 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2021: 8,163 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2022: 8,188 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2023: 10,461 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2024: 12,223 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2025: 13,989 defendants · published 30 July 2026Year ending March 2026: 16,454 defendants · published 30 July 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

Defendants proceeded against at magistrates' courts in England and Wales in the twelve months ending March, split by the offence group of the principal offence.

The indictable and summary subtotals the table also prints, which are left out so the groups sum to the total.

Source

Dataset
Criminal justice statistics quarterly: overview tables
Release
Year ending March 2026, published 30 July 2026 · sha256 60c19d2d5ff2446d…
All values
Prosecutions by offence group