Remand status at Crown Court

Published 2 October 2018

Last updated 14 May 2019 - see all updates

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Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• in 2017, the number of defendants remanded in custody at the Crown Court fell for all ethnic groups compared with the years from 2014 to 2016
• in 2017, defendants with Mixed ethnicity were more likely than any other ethnic group to be remanded in custody
• from 2012 to 2017, White defendants were consistently less likely to be remanded in custody, and consistently more likely to have a remand status of ‘not remanded’, than any other ethnic group

Things you need to know

The data is taken from the Ministry of Justice's case management system for the Crown Court (known as 'CREST'), which only holds data for defendants remanded in Crown Court.

Magistrates' courts are not included because there is not enough ethnicity data for defendants dealt with by those courts. This also means that defendants who originally appeared in a magistrates' court, and later appeared in the Crown Court, are not be counted twice.

If a defendant has more than one remand status during court proceedings, only the most serious status will be recorded. For example, if a defendant is remanded on bail and then later remanded in custody, their status will be recorded as remanded in custody.

The data does not include details of the offence for which the defendant has been charged. It is likely that the severity of the offence will influence the type of remand status (bail or custody) given to the defendant.

What the data measures

This data measures the percentage of defendants at Crown Court who are either remanded on bail or custody, or not remanded. The data is broken down by ethnicity.

Remand is the way that people who are charged with a crime are dealt with until court hearings for that crime are completed. They can be:

• remanded on bail, meaning they are allowed to return home until the court hearing (sometimes with certain conditions)
• remanded in custody, which means they are held in prison
• not remanded, meaning they have not been given bail or custody – for example, because they were given an immediate custodial sentence

After arrest, the police will decide a defendant’s remand status (bail or custody), which lasts until their first court hearing at the magistrates’ court. After that, the courts will decide the defendant’s remand status at each hearing in the proceedings. Different remand decisions for the same defendant may be made during the court process.

Some offences are dealt with entirely in the magistrates’ court, but others (usually more serious offences) go from there to the Crown Court. This data focuses on defendants in the Crown Court.

Defendants are classified by age group:

• juveniles are aged under 18 years
• young adults are aged between 18 and 20 years
• adults are aged 21 years and over

The ethnic categories used in this data

This data uses the following broad ethnic groups based on the 2001 Census:

• Asian/Asian British
• Black/African/Caribbean/Black British
• Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups
• White
• Other ethnic group (including Chinese)

There is also a ‘not stated’ category, made up of people whose ethnicity wasn’t known or who chose not to declare it. This analysis excludes those in the ‘not stated’ category (about 1 in 5 defendants).

2. By ethnicity

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: 2017
• Source: Criminal justice statistics

Percentage and number of defendants remanded at Crown Court, by ethnicity and remand status

	Bail		Custody		Not remanded
Ethnicity	Bail %	Bail Number	Custody %	Custody Number	Not remanded %	Not remanded Number
Asian	50.1	2,839	36.2	2,054	13.7	779
Black	42.3	3,559	42.6	3,586	15.0	1,265
Mixed	41.0	883	43.5	937	15.5	334
White	44.1	23,130	35.8	18,780	20.1	10,569
Other including Chinese	44.7	514	40.4	465	14.9	172

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Remand status at Crown Court By ethnicity Summary

This data shows that:

• in 2017, defendants from the White, Asian, and Other (including Chinese) ethnic groups were more likely to be remanded on bail than to be remanded in custody

3. By ethnicity over time (remands in custody only)

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: 2009 to 2017
• Source: Criminal justice statistics

Percentage and number of defendants remanded in custody at Crown Court by ethnicity over time

	Asian		Black		Mixed		White		Other including Chinese
Year	Asian %	Asian Number	Black %	Black Number	Mixed %	Mixed Number	White %	White Number	Other inc Chinese %	Other inc Chinese Number
2009	36.5	2,303	47.9	4,710	43.5	1,001	31.8	21,106	52.1	911
2010	34.4	2,829	45.5	5,373	40.1	1,269	32.3	26,633	50.2	1,092
2011	34.7	2,887	45.8	5,544	42.1	1,467	34.1	28,274	45.7	938
2012	34.6	2,526	45.3	4,743	41.5	1,304	33.1	23,803	44.6	813
2013	34.8	2,383	46.0	4,377	43.0	1,257	34.8	23,460	46.8	770
2014	37.0	2,454	47.1	4,388	44.8	1,259	36.8	25,111	44.3	678
2015	36.7	2,478	45.8	4,190	42.8	1,199	36.5	24,623	43.7	694
2016	36.3	2,251	42.8	3,876	41.2	1,034	34.9	20,894	39.2	532
2017	36.2	2,054	42.6	3,586	43.5	937	35.8	18,780	40.4	465

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Remand status at Crown Court By ethnicity over time (remands in custody only) Summary

This data shows that:

• for most years since 2011, Black defendants were more likely to be remanded in custody than any other outcome – the exception was in 2016, when they were more likely to be remanded on bail
• from 2009 to 2017, defendants from the White and Asian ethnic groups were the least likely to be remanded in custody compared with other ethnic groups – 35.8% and 36.2% of defendants respectively had this remand status in 2017

4. By ethnicity and gender (remands in custody only)

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: 2009 to 2017
• Source: Criminal justice statistics

Percentage of defendants remanded in custody at Crown Court by ethnicity and gender over time

	2009		2010		2011		2012		2013		2014		2015		2016		2017
Ethnicity and sex	2009 %	2009 Number	2010 %	2010 Number	2011 %	2011 Number	2012 %	2012 Number	2013 %	2013 Number	2014 %	2014 Number	2015 %	2015 Number	2016 %	2016 Number	2017 %	2017 Number
Asian Female	24.5	94	22.0	98	22.2	104	19.2	79	18.2	62	20.7	68	20.3	74	23.2	72	22.1	60
Black Female	37.7	422	32.9	410	28.6	357	25.6	232	27.1	207	30.6	205	24.2	180	23.0	151	22.7	123
Mixed Female	19.4	43	21.7	86	28.4	112	22.2	80	23.5	64	24.2	64	21.6	63	24.9	58	27.2	56
Other including Chinese Female	45.7	84	42.1	107	35.6	80	32.0	66	31.0	52	27.3	51	26.0	51	26.1	31	34.6	37
White Female	18.4	1,404	18.2	1,692	20.3	1,873	19.8	1,545	20.0	1,381	23.6	1,673	21.0	1,514	22.1	1,357	24.7	1,309
Asian Male	37.3	2,209	35.2	2,731	35.5	2,783	35.6	2,447	35.6	2,321	37.8	2,386	37.7	2,404	37.0	2,179	36.9	1,994
Black Male	49.2	4,288	47.0	4,963	47.7	5,187	47.2	4,511	47.6	4,170	48.4	4,183	47.7	4,010	44.4	3,725	44.0	3,463
Mixed Male	46.0	958	42.7	1,183	43.8	1,355	44.0	1,224	45.0	1,193	47.0	1,195	45.3	1,136	42.9	976	45.2	881
Other including Chinese Male	52.8	827	51.2	985	46.9	857	46.2	747	48.6	718	46.6	627	46.2	643	40.5	501	41.0	428
White Male	33.5	19,702	34.1	24,941	35.8	26,401	34.8	22,258	36.4	22,079	38.4	23,438	38.4	23,109	36.3	19,537	37.0	17,471

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Remand status at Crown Court By ethnicity and gender (remands in custody only) Summary

This data shows that:

• in every year since 2009, male defendants were more likely than female defendants to be remanded in custody in every ethnic group
• in 2017, male defendants from Mixed ethnic groups were more likely to be remanded in custody than male defendants from all other ethnic groups (at 45.2%)
• female defendants from the Other (including Chinese) ethnic group were more likely to remanded in custody than female defendants from all other ethnic groups (at 34.6%)

5. By ethnicity and age group (remands in custody only)

• Location: England and Wales
• Time period: 2009 to 2017
• Source: Criminal justice statistics

Percentage of defendants remanded in custody at Crown Court by ethnicity and age group over time

	2017		2016		2015		2014		2013		2012		2011		2010		2009
Ethnicity and age group	2017 %	2017 Number	2016 %	2016 Number	2015 %	2015 Number	2014 %	2014 Number	2013 %	2013 Number	2012 %	2012 Number	2011 %	2011 Number	2010 %	2010 Number	2009 %	2009 Number
Asian Adults	36.6	1,791	36.8	1,984	36.9	2,160	37.8	2,134	35.0	2,045	34.8	2,096	34.6	2,349	34.1	2,308	36.9	1,928
Black Adults	42.3	2,861	42.7	3,164	45.3	3,394	46.9	3,582	45.3	3,472	44.4	3,617	44.2	4,170	44.9	4,177	47.4	3,720
Mixed Adults	43.9	736	42.0	833	43.5	966	44.8	967	42.8	940	41.1	944	42.8	1,054	38.6	859	42.3	676
Other including Chinese Adults	39.3	395	37.9	455	43.9	608	43.6	597	46.3	690	43.3	676	44.7	781	50.7	970	52.9	816
White Adults	36.3	17,136	35.3	19,020	36.9	22,114	37.2	22,303	34.7	20,485	33.1	20,247	34.0	23,462	32.3	21,917	31.8	17,198
Asian Young adults	32.9	229	31.2	219	35.9	275	34.6	286	35.0	293	34.2	358	33.9	431	35.3	426	34.7	303
Black Young adults	42.8	611	42.6	611	47.8	677	48.1	658	50.2	720	47.6	859	51.2	1,077	46.1	907	49.1	751
Mixed Young adults	42.3	174	37.3	168	41.5	195	45.0	234	43.8	247	43.4	294	39.3	319	43.8	326	45.5	244
Other including Chinese Young adults	46.8	59	49.3	67	41.1	67	46.0	64	53.4	71	55.0	111	50.6	128	45.6	99	42.9	69
White Young adults	30.8	1,446	31.4	1,699	33.8	2,231	34.7	2,483	35.5	2,587	33.8	3,114	34.2	4,184	31.9	4,078	31.0	3,228
Asian Juveniles	43.0	34	42.9	48	34.1	43	21.4	34	25.6	45	32.6	72	41.6	107	40.8	95	34.3	72
Black Juveniles	50.9	114	48.6	101	47.8	119	47.3	148	44.9	185	51.0	267	51.4	297	55.0	289	52.8	239
Mixed Juveniles	41.5	27	42.9	33	34.5	38	43.6	58	43.8	70	39.5	66	44.3	94	42.2	84	47.6	81
Other including Chinese Juveniles	55.0	11	47.6	10	48.7	19	68.0	17	37.5	9	42.6	26	54.9	28	52.3	23	56.5	26
White Juveniles	31.3	198	25.8	175	30.6	278	29.9	325	33.5	388	31.3	442	35.8	628	35.7	638	37.1	680

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Remand status at Crown Court By ethnicity and age group (remands in custody only) Summary

This data shows that:

• between 2014 and 2017, the percentage of Asian juvenile defendants remanded in custody doubled, from 21.4% in 2014 to 43.0% in 2017
• in 2017, Black juvenile defendants, and those from Other (including Chinese) backgrounds, were more likely to be remanded in custody than remanded on bail, unlike defendants from the same age groups in most other ethnic groups

6. Methodology

The data counts individual people (defendants) rather than cases. Multiple defendants are counted for one case where applicable. Each defendant is only counted once, even if multiple offences are committed. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the data includes the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed.

Rounding

Percentages are rounded to 1 decimal place.

Related publications

Race and the criminal justice system

Quality and methodology information

7. Data sources

Source

Criminal justice statistics

Type of data

Administrative data

Type of statistic

Official statistics

Publisher

Ministry of Justice

Publication frequency

Quarterly

Purpose of data source

The data is used by the government to develop, monitor and evaluate criminal justice policy. It reports on activity in the criminal justice system for England and Wales, giving information for the latest year and longer-term trends.

8. Download the data

Remand status at Crown Court - Spreadsheet (csv) 72 KB

This file contains the following variables: Measure, Year, Sex, Age group, ethnicity, remand status, count, denominator, value

Remand status by Police Force Area - Spreadsheet (csv) 625 KB

This file contains the following variables: Measure, Year, Sex, Age Group, Ethnicity, Remand Status, Police Force Area, Count, Denominator, Value

Publication release date: 2 October 2018

Updated: 14 May 2019

full page history

1. 14 May 2019 Some headings have been changed. No data or commentary has been updated.
2. 8 October 2018 Corrections to breakdown by sex
3. 2 October 2018 Updated with the most recent data (for 2017)

From: Ministry of Justice

Previous edition:

1. 10 October 2017

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