Justice system still struggling to recover from the pandemic

The number of prosecutions for indictable offences fell by 3% compared to last year, which may be attributable to the industrial action taken by barristers last summer.

The Ministry of Justice and the Office for National Statistics today published its quarterly criminal justice bulletin covering the main activities in the justice system up to the end of 2022.

The figures show rises in the number of people dealt with by the criminal justice system but activity levels remain well below the pre-pandemic situation despite the fact that police recorded crime (including fraud) in 2022 increased by 11% to 6.6 million, above pre-pandemic levels.

Headlines

The headline trends are:

• 1.4 million individuals were formally dealt with by the Criminal Justice System in 2022, a 7% increase over 2021, but still a full 11% below the 2019 figure.
• The total number of Out of Court Disposals (OOCDs) issued increased by 1% in the latest year, despite a decrease in most categories. This was driven by a 10% increase in community resolutions.
• Interestingly the number of prosecutions for more serious (indictable) offences actually fell by 3% compared to last year, this may, in part be attributable to the industrial action taken by barristers last summer. In contrast, the number of prosecutions for summary offences (which take place in Magistrates’ Courts) were 11% higher than in 2021.
• Overall, prosecutions remain 13% and convictions 12% lower than last year.
• The continuing rise in the proportion of defendants appearing at Crown Court who are remanded in custody is clear, up to 55% (from 52%) last year.
• The average custodial sentence length (ACSL) for indictable offences has consistently risen throughout the last 10 years (from 17.0 months in 2012), to 24.9 months in 2021, to 24.3 months. Interestingly, the average prison sentence dropped in 2022 to 24.3 months.

Remand

As we have seen, at Crown Court, for those cases where remand status was known (worryingly it was not known for almost one quarter, 24%, of defendants), the proportion of defendants remanded in custody increased by three percentage points to 55% in 2022, with a corresponding decrease in the proportion remanded on bail. This trend was consistent across all offence types – in other words, it cannot be explained by the Crown Court prioritising more serious offences as it did during the pandemic. This figure is particularly worrying because only seven out of ten of those people remanded in custody from the Crown Court end up with a sentence of immediate custody.

Motoring

The statistical bulletin also provides detailed information on motoring offences, a category which receives little attention from criminal justice commentators.

The number of prosecutions for motoring offences increased by 12% from 632,000 in 2021 to 711,000 in 2022, returning to the level seen pre-pandemic in 2019. Convictions increased by a larger proportion (14%) in the latest year, from 556,000 in 2021 to 642,000 in 2022, with sentencing following the same trend.

This increase in motoring offences is driven in part by an increase in speed limit offences and vehicle insurance offences, which remained the most common motoring offences, accounting for 53% of all motoring prosecutions in 2022. Prosecutions for speed limit offences increased by 18% in the latest year, from 208,000 in 2021 to 245,000 in 2022. This is not a reflection of people returning to driving more once the pandemic lockdown restrictions were over. In fact it represents a rise of almost on quarter (22%) compared to the most recent pre-pandemic year of 2019.

One piece of good news is that prosecutions for motoring offences which caused death declined by 19% in the latest year, from 419 in 2021 to 340 in 2022. Approximately three out of five people convicted of these offences were sent to prison – 60% last year although the custody rate has fluctuated between 55% and 67% over the last 5 years.