3. Statistical context

The trend data supplied in this publication needs to consider the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. There were significant public health measures, including two national lockdowns, in place during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 recording years. For example, many courts were temporarily closed early in 2020-21. There was also reduced capacity when courts reopened. This means that statistics for most areas of justice social work were impacted in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Caution is advised in comparing data from these two years to other years.

There has been a number of changes to guidance and data collected for 2025-26:

• Court Information has been removed from the national collection after consultation with data users

• New collection on TARL reports, TARL addendums and home background reports and collection on parole/non-parole reports was ceased.

For a number of topics in this publication, cases may commence in one reporting year and conclude in a later reporting year. As a result, figures for cases commenced and cases completed within the same year are not directly comparable and should not be used to calculate completion rates.