The Department of Justice has published its latest court prosecutions, convictions and out of court disposals statistics for 2017.

There were 1,587 prosecutions disposed at Crown Court in 2017, a sharp decrease of 15.7 per cent from 1,882 in 2016. Meanwhile, the number of prosecutions at magistrates’ courts rose from 25,767 in 2016 to 26,767 in 2017, a small rise of 3.9 per cent.

The vast majority (83.3 per cent) of prosecutions in all courts resulted in a conviction, broadly in line with 83 per cent in 2016.

Of all offence categories, motoring offences made up the largest proportion of prosecutions at all courts (44.1 per cent) in 2017, while drugs offences had the highest conviction rate (93.3 per cent).

Monetary penalties were the most frequently utilised disposal at all courts in 2017, with 55.6 per cent of all convictions having this type of disposal as their primary outcome. A custodial outcome was imposed in 12.3 per cent of cases at all courts in 2017.

A total of 2,002 Penalty Notices for Disorder (PNDs) were issued in 2017. Miscellaneous crimes against society constituted the largest proportion (39.3 per cent) of PNDs issued.

The number of out of court, diversionary disposals recorded against individuals’ criminal records in 2017 was 4,715, a fall of 11.6 per cent from 5,335 in 2016. Most diversionary disposals were dealt with by way of caution, with 79.1 per cent dealt with in this way.

Of all diversionary disposals, 22.4 per cent were handed down for drug offences and 21.4 per cent for violence against the person offences.