This is the 2021 Criminal Justice Statistics annual bulletin; it is based on data that has undergone additional quality assurance and includes cases for previous periods that have become available since earlier publications. The bulletin is accompanied by tools and experimental statistics providing additional insight for users.

This report presents key statistics on activity in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) for England and Wales. It provides commentary for January to December 2021 (referred to as the ‘latest year’) with accompanying data tools providing offence level information.

The contents of this bulletin will be of interest to government policy makers in the development of policy and their subsequent monitoring and evaluation. Others will be interested in the way different crimes are dealt with in the CJS, trends in sentencing outcomes and understanding the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The recovery at the criminal courts continued following the impacts of the COVID-19 response. Most measures in this bulletin have been impacted by the COVID-19 response and the latest figures represent both a reflection of the pandemic response impact and the initial indication of the continuation of trends that were apparent prior to the pandemic.