The backlog of cases waiting to be completed in crown courts in England and Wales is at a record high, with sexual offences accounting for a growing proportion of cases with the longest delays.
Here the Press Association looks at the key numbers and trends behind the backlog, using the latest available figures from the Ministry of Justice.
– How large is the overall backlog?
There were 78,329 outstanding cases in the crown court system in England and Wales as of June 30 2025.
This is a record high and is up 10% from 70,893 a year earlier.
The backlog has more than doubled in the past six years, having stood at 34,184 in June 2019.
– How long have cases been in the backlog?
There were 19,164 cases in June 2025 that had been open for at least a year, up 17% from 16,378 a year earlier.
It is the highest number of cases open for at least 12 months since current data began.
Some 5,913 cases had been open for at least two years.
This number peaked at 6,298 in April-June 2023, since when it has fallen slightly.
– How long are defendants waiting for cases to be completed?
The median average time from charge to completion for defendants dealt with at crown courts stood at 179 days in April-June 2025.
This is up slightly from 176 a year earlier, but is below the peak of 222 days in October-December 2021.
Before the pandemic, this figure stood at around 140 days.
In cases sent to trial where a not guilty plea was entered by the defendant, the median duration from charge to completion in April-June was 392 days.
This is down year on year from 414 and is below the peak of 448 days in April-June 2023.
But it is well above the pre-pandemic level of around 250 days.
– How does the backlog of cases break down by type of offence?
Nearly a third of the crown court backlog at the end of June were cases involving violence against the person (31%), with around one in six being sexual offences (17%) and around one in seven drug offences (14%).
These three categories of offence together accounted for nearly two-thirds (62%) of the full backlog.
Among the smaller categories, theft offences made up 7% of all cases, possession of weapons 4%, public order offences 4% and robbery 3%.
– What offences make up the cases with the longest delays?
Sexual offences account for a growing proportion of cases with the longest delays in crown courts in England and Wales.
Nearly one in five (18%) backlog cases that had been open for at least two years as of the end of June 2025 were for this category of offence.
This is up from 13% in June 2024 and 11% in June 2023.
A total of 1,070 cases involving sexual offences had been open for two years or more at the end of June, up sharply from 776 cases in June 2024 and 689 in 2023.
Rape cases accounted for 7% of the two-year backlog in June, up from 5% in 2024 and 4% in 2023.
Some 431 rape cases had been open for at least two years as of June, compared with 273 12 months earlier and 261 in 2023.
The category of offence that makes up the single largest proportion of cases open for at least two years is that of violence against the person, accounting for 25% of the total in June, up slightly from 23% in both 2024 and 2023.
Drug offences made up 15% of the total in June, down from 18% in 2024 and 21% in 2023.
