February 23

February 23, 2005: New Sentencing Figures Published

Sentencing statistics for 2003 for England and Wales have just been published by the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate.
Key points include:

A total of 1,489,827offenders were sentenced in 2003. This was the largest figure recorded in the last ten years, and an increase of 5% over 2002. The increase is though to be mainly accounted for by the rise in summary offences, particularly motoring offences.
The total number sentenced for indictable offences fell by 0.8% to 333,930.
A total of 1,413,764 offenders were sentenced at magistrates’ courts in 2003.
A total of 76,063 offenders were sentenced at Crown Court in 2003.
The total number of male offenders sentenced was 1,219,195.
The total number of female offenders sentenced was 260,617.
The total number of juveniles (aged 10–17) sentenced was 92,531.
The total number of young adults (aged 18–20) sentenced was162,067.
The total number of adults (aged 21 and over) sentenced was1,225,214.
The total number of offenders sentenced to immediate custody increased by 83% from 1993 to 2003.

Overall, the number of offenders sentenced to immediate custody decreased by more than 3,000 since 2002 to 107,670 in 2003. The 2.3% decrease in custodial sentences at magistrates’ courts is the first annual decrease for at least a decade.

Custody rates for indictable offences fell in both the Crown Court and magistrates’ courts in 2003. In the Crown Court, the custody rate dropped from 63% in 2002 to 60% in 2003; in magistrates’ courts, the fall was from 15% to 14%.

Average custodial sentence lengths for indictable offences in the Crown Court increased by 31% from 1993 to 2003. In magistrates’ courts during this period, they remained between 2.7 months and 3.4 months. Average custodial sentence lengths for indictable offences increased in the Crown Court between 2002 and 2003, up from 26.3 to 26.8 months.

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