Ministry of Justice written question – answered at on 10 February 2026.
Toby Perkins
Chair, Environmental Audit Committee, Chair, Environmental Audit Committee
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time was between charge and trial in a) rape, b) murder and c) GBH cases in each year between 2009 and 2025 for each court in England.
Sarah Sackman
The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice
Data showing the time from charge to main hearing for defendants dealt with for the selected offences following the entry of a not guilty plea at the Crown Court from 2016 to 2024 can be found in the attached tables. Data is not available for years prior to 2016.
Data has been provided at the lowest geographical level of our published Accredited Official Statistics, Local Criminal Justice Board Level (LCJB).
Please note that many of the averages are based on very small volumes of defendants and as such the figures should be treated with caution.
Our published timeliness metrics are produced at a sufficiently 'high' level to reduce the volatility and fluctuations associated with low volumes of cases i.e. offence groups. Where court level offence breakdowns are based on fewer than five cases in these tables, timeliness values are suppressed as they are particularly volatile and can be misleading.
Table (xlsx, 35.0KB)
Yes1 person thinks so
No0 people think not
Would you like to ask a question like this yourself? Use our Freedom of Information site.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
