Court statistics for England and Wales

Outstanding caseloads

Both the magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court have an ongoing backlog of cases, known as outstanding cases. There are longstanding concerns about delays and the large outstanding caseload in the criminal courts. In particular third parties have highlighted the negative effects of Crown Court cases taking longer on victims of crime and their families, witnesses, and defendants. Lengthening cases can also add to the cost of administering justice.

Various factors have contributed to the backlog, including ‘one-off’ events such as the covid-19 pandemic and industrial action by criminal barristers. In addition, systemic issues have been identified such as lack of funding, lack of capacity in the legal profession (not enough defence or prosecution solicitors/barristers), caps on Crown Court sitting days (although these have increased in recent years), and an increasingly complex outstanding caseload.

Since the end of 2019 outstanding caseloads have grown, with further sharp increases recorded over 2020 and 2021 due to the covid-19 pandemic restrictions. The outstanding caseload has not recovered since the pandemic and has instead consistently increased.

In the quarter ending in December 2025, the outstanding caseload in the Crown Court stood at around 80,200; the highest level recorded since 2016 and well over double the pre-covid outstanding caseload in the quarter ending in December 2019. More detail is provided in the chart below.

Source: Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Criminal Court Statistics: October to December 2025, 26 March 2026 (Table C1)

In the quarter ending in December 2025, the outstanding criminal caseload in magistrates’ courts stood at around 379,400. This was the highest level recorded since the quarter ending March 2019 and a 70% increase compared with pre-pandemic levels in December 2019.

Source: MoJ, Criminal court statistics quarterly: Various Years (Table M1)

The interim total outstanding tribunal caseload at the end of March 2025 was around 741,000 cases, which was the highest since March 2013 when it was around 898,000 cases. Only interim figures are available for tribunal caseloads due to the ongoing migration to a new case management system (more information about this is provided in section 1).

Outstanding caseload figures for civil cases are not published.

Criminal court performance

Court performance is one factor which contributes to the number of outstanding cases. A key measure for court performance is trial effectiveness.

In both magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court, the proportion of trials which were effective (trials that go ahead as scheduled) declined over the past ten years, while the proportion of ineffective trials (trials that cannot go ahead and have to be rescheduled) rose.

In 2025, 39% of magistrates’ trials were effective (compared to 47% in 2016) while 44% of Crown Court trials were effective (compared to 51% in 2016). 22% of magistrates’ trials were ineffective in 2025 (compared to 15% in 2016). 25% of Crown Court trials were ineffective in 2025 (compared to 15% in 2016).

The most common reason for ineffective trials at magistrates’ courts as well as at the Crown court was overlisting. Overlisting is where more cases are listed (or allocated) to a particular court than that court actually has capacity to hear.

Source: MoJ, Criminal Court Statistics: October to December 2025, 26 March 2026 (Tables M2 and C2)

Criminal court waiting times

For both magistrates’ court cases and Crown Court cases waiting times increased sharply due to the covid-19 pandemic and although waits have since reduced from their peaks, they remain above pre-pandemic levels. Waiting times for certain types of cases are much higher than the averages presented below (such as rape cases).

Source: MoJ, Criminal Justice system delivery data dashboard, accessed 3 October 2025

Source: MoJ, Criminal court statistics, table T3

HM Courts and Tribunals Service Spending

In financial year 2024-25 HM Courts and Tribunals Service day-to-day expenditure (all courts and tribunals) was around £2.4 billion which was the highest level in both cash and real terms since comparable data was published.

The planned expenditure for 2025-26 at around £2.6 billion is a further 7% increase in cash terms and a 3% increase in real terms (2025-26 prices) compared with the previous year.

Further information

The Courts and Tribunals Bill was introduced to the House of Commons on 25 February 2026. It includes measures that the government says “aim to reduce the Crown Court open caseload”, such as restricting the right to trial by jury.

At the time of writing the Bill is in Committee Stage in the Commons. Information about the Bill is not provided in this briefing but is available in the House of Commons Library briefing Courts and Tribunals Bill 2024-26