Between 1 October 2010 and 31 March 2015 the Sentencing Council conducted a data collection exercise called the Crown Court Sentencing Survey – CCSS.

The CCSS was a paper-based survey. It was completed by the sentencing judge (or other sentencer) passing sentence in the Crown Court. It collected information on the factors taken into account by the judge in working out the appropriate sentence for an offender and the final sentence given. The survey was designed to help the Council  fulfil our duties under section 128 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009

The survey ended on 31 March 2015, following an external review, but we continue to use the wealth of data collected during its four and a half years. The data also continues to be available in the form of anonymised data for each individual ‘record’ or offender recorded in the survey.

Crown Court Sentencing Survey 2014

The results for 2014 were published on 25 June 2015 and cover all sentences passed by the Crown Court in 2014. The presentation of the results focuses on exploring the relationship between the factors taken into account in sentencing and the final sentence imposed, to help improve understanding of the sentencing process.

The bulletin was produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority and published on 25 June 2015.

Crown Court Sentencing Survey annual publication, 2014 – full report
Crown Court Sentencing Survey annual publication, 2014 – additional tables
Annex A: Guide to CCSS Statistics
Annex B: Quality and Methodology note
Pre-release access
Examples of survey forms

Coverage: England and Wales
Period: 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2014
Publication date: 25 June 2015

Crown Court Sentencing Survey previous editions

Data for 2011, 2012 and 2013 are the same as that published on 25 June 2015.

Data for 2014 is the same as that published on 25 June 2015, with the exception of the sexual offences dataset. This has been revised due to an error identified that affected the data on culpability factors for sexual offences.

January to December 2013

Publication date: 26 June 2014 (revised 3 February 2015)

Crown Court Sentencing Survey annual publication 2013
Supplementary Excel tables
Corrections to CCSS annual publication 2013

January to December 2012

Publication date: 30 May 2013

Crown Court Sentencing Survey annual publication 2012
Supplementary Excel tables

January to December 2011

Publication date: 24 May 2012

Crown Court Sentencing Survey annual publication 2011
Supplementary Excel tables

Experimental release – October 2010 to March 2011

Publication date: October 2011

Crown Court Sentencing Survey experimental release 2011

Crown Court Sentencing Survey underlying data

The data underlying the Crown Court Sentencing Survey publication are available for download below as CSV files. These files contain anonymised data for each individual ‘record’ or offender recorded in the survey. These data are most commonly referred to as ‘record level data’ and can be used for analysis. An accompanying metadata document and guide containing important information on the use and interpretation of the data are also available. It is strongly recommended that these documents are read before the datasets are used for analysis.

REVISION: An error was identified in the sexual offences dataset for 2014, which affected the data on culpability factors. This has now been rectified and a revised dataset has been published.

Coverage: England and Wales
Periods covered: 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011 1 January 2012 to 31 March 2012 1 April 2012 to 31 December 2012 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2013 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2014 1 January 2015 to 31 March 2015

User guide
Metadata document
Datasets