Key Measures

The sections are currently:

• Magistrates' Court - Conviction Rate
• Magistrates' Court - Percentage of Guilty Pleas at First Hearing
• Magistrates' Court - Average number of hearings per case - Guilty Pleas
• Magistrates' Court - Average number of hearings per case - Contests
• Magistrates' Court - Prosecutions dropped at third or subsequent hearing
• Crown Court - Conviction Rate
• Crown Court - Guilty Plea at First Hearing Rate
• Crown Court - Average number of hearings per case - Guilty Pleas
• Crown Court - Average number of hearings per case - Contests
• Crown Court – Timely compliance with Court Directions and Judges' Orders
• Rape Conviction Rate – (Rolling Annual)
• Domestic Abuse Conviction Rate
• Hate Crime Conviction Rate (Rolling Annual)
• Hate Crime Sentence Uplift
• Average Working Days Lost
• Employee Engagement Index

This information will be published on a quarterly basis.

Key Measures - definitions

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) operates a Performance Management Framework with a number of key performance measures. Each year these indicators are reviewed and refreshed to take account of changing priorities and business needs. For this reason each annual set of key performance indicators should be viewed as discrete from each other.

CPS data are available through its Case Management System (CMS) and associated Management Information System (MIS). The CPS collects data to assist in the effective management of its prosecution functions. The CPS does not collect data that constitutes official statistics as defined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

These data have been drawn from the CPS's administrative IT system, which (as with any large scale recording system) is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The figures are provisional and subject to change as more information is recorded by the CPS. We are committed to improving the quality of our data and from mid-June 2015 introduced a new data assurance regime which may explain some unexpected variance in some future data sets.

The official statistics relating to crime and policing are maintained by the Home Office (HO) and the official statistics relating to sentencing, criminal court proceedings, offenders brought to justice, the courts and the judiciary are maintained by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).

This information will be published on a quarterly basis.

Data on rape prosecutions

CPS data on successful rape prosecutions includes not only cases resulting in a conviction for rape, but also cases initially flagged as rape where a conviction was obtained for an alternative or lesser offence. The flag is applied to CPS files from the start of the case following an initial allegation of rape. This flag will remain in place even if the decision is taken to charge an offence other than rape, or where a rape charge is subsequently amended. This is for case management purposes to ensure that the principles of the rape and sexual offence policy are considered throughout the life of all relevant cases, The accuracy of flagging of cases stayed steady at 98.4% in 2016–17 compared with 98.8% in 2015–16.