Catalina Espinosa
Research expert covering society, economy, and politics for Europe and the EU
Criminal justice system in the UK- Statistics & Facts
The criminal justice system of the United Kingdom is the collective body responsible for administrating justice in the UK, and consists of various institutions such as the police, the crown prosecution service, and the UK's prison system. Like almost every governmental department in the UK, the Ministry of Justice was forced to contend with fewer resources in the 2010s, and saw its budget fall quite significantly. The budget of the Ministry of Justice has gradually increased, with the budget for 2022/23 reaching 10.1 billion British pounds. The reduction in police officers after 2010 is one of the most well-known consequences of the cuts, but other important aspects of the justice system, such as legal aid funding, were also dramatically reduced.
Due to these developments, the court responsible for serious crime cases in England and Wales, the Crown Court, has struggled with a backlog of cases, which reached 67,570 in 2023, compared with 32,940 in 2018. At the same time, it is also taking longer for trials to reach conclusion, with cases taking an average of 332 days in 2025 to go from offence to completion, compared with 233 days in 2018. Even when cases result in convictions there is evidence that the current prison system is also struggling with capacity problems. In September 2023 for example, the number of spare prison places in England and Wales fell to just 768 places, compared with around 2,414 one year earlier.
A system under pressure
Throughout the 2010s, as budgets fell across all governmental departments, crime in the United Kingdom increased, putting an extra burden on the criminal justice system. In England and Wales for example, sexual offences grew significantly, from around 50,000 per year in the early 2010s to almost 200,000 per year in the 2020s. While this was partly due to the emergence of historical allegations of sexual abuse, there has also been a cultural shift in the way such crimes are handled by the justice system, with previous sexual offence figures likely only showing a fraction of actual crimes. These types of crimes are among the most serious and carry the highest average prison sentence length in England and Wales. Overall levels of crime have continued to increase into the 2020s, with the crime rate for England and Wales reaching 93.5 in 2022/23, the highest it has been since 2006/07.Due to these developments, the court responsible for serious crime cases in England and Wales, the Crown Court, has struggled with a backlog of cases, which reached 67,570 in 2023, compared with 32,940 in 2018. At the same time, it is also taking longer for trials to reach conclusion, with cases taking an average of 332 days in 2025 to go from offence to completion, compared with 233 days in 2018. Even when cases result in convictions there is evidence that the current prison system is also struggling with capacity problems. In September 2023 for example, the number of spare prison places in England and Wales fell to just 768 places, compared with around 2,414 one year earlier.
Court structure and workforce
Although the Crown Court deals with the most serious types of crimes, most court cases in England and Wales will proceed through the Magistrate's Court, which had 1.37 million new cases in 2023, compared with around 105,500 in the Crown Court. A similar structure exists in Scotland, with indictable crimes being dealt with in the High Court and Sheriff Courts, and summary offences often dealt with in the Justice of the Peace court. These various court systems were staffed by an estimated 37,700 barristers and judges in 2024, with the prison system in England and Wales staffed by around 23,610 prison officers in the same year.
