Juries
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of criminal trials were heard before a jury in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman
The Ministry of Justice does not centrally hold information on the numbers and proportion of criminal trials heard before a jury. However, the vast majority of criminal cases are heard in the magistrates’ courts without juries – with 90% of all criminal cases being dealt with by magistrates. Of the remaining defendants that do progress to the Crown Court for trial, most plead guilty, meaning their cases do not go before a jury. Therefore, the most accurate proxy available for how many cases are heard by a jury in the Crown Court is the number of defendants who plead not guilty. The table below provides a breakdown of this data over the past five years:
Defendants dealt with in trial cases disposed of in the Crown Court, 2020-2024
Year | Total number of defendants | Plea entered: Guilty | Plea entered: Not guilty | Guilty plea rate |
2020 | 50,353 | 34,341 | 7,404 | 72% |
2021 | 63,884 | 40,613 | 12,069 | 67% |
2022 | 61,193 | 37,340 | 11,964 | 64% |
2023 | 70,917 | 42,039 | 14,838 | 62% |
2024 | 76,653 | 44,288 | 15,638 | 61% |
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