Data First: Cross-Justice System - England and Wales
This dataset connects Ministry of Justice data from the civil and family courts with different areas of the criminal justice system. This presents an unprecedented opportunity to understand cross-cutting questions about the overlaps and intersections between users of services in different justice jurisdictions.
Data is available on an individual person- and case- level, from the start of criminal prosecutions in the magistrates’ courts and Crown Court, through to periods spent in prison custody or under supervision of the probation service. Data from the offender assessment system is also available, providing an insight into the risks and needs associated with individual offenders. Additionally, data is available on adults and children involved in family court cases to do with child custody, care arrangements, divorce or adoption, as well as people (and companies) involved in civil cases as claimants or defendants. This will enable insights on end-to-end user journeys across the criminal, family and civil justice systems.
Component datasets and linkage
The cross-justice system linkage is composed of several datasets: magistrates' courts defendant-level data, Crown Court defendant-level data, family court data, civil court data, prisoner custodial journey data, probation data and offender assessment system data. The dataset uses a cross-justice system linking dataset which acts a lookup to connect de-identified records that refer to the same people across the different MoJ datasets.
Introduction to Data First: Cross-justice system dataset
Introduction to criminal courts data - returning defendants
Stakeholder webinars
If you would like your research to be informed by organisations representing the interests of crime and justice system users, then watch our stakeholder webinars. You will hear from a variety of community stakeholders about their organisation’s priorities and how your research outputs could support their work.
The first webinar features:
The second webinar features:
Examples of research questions
- What links are there between cases in the civil and family courts, and their interactions with the criminal justice system?
- How can we better understand how problems interact and reinforce each other, and how people move through different courts across the system as they attempt to resolve them? For instance, do users of the civil courts also appear across other areas of the justice system? Are there pathways between civil courts and other areas of the justice system?
- Who are the ‘repeat’ users across the justice system? Does involvement in other areas of the justice system influence criminal (re-)offending? What works to enable effective outcomes across the justice system and reduce (re-)offending? For example, are children in family court cases at an increased risk of (early) criminal offending compared to the general population?
- How do individuals in the justice system vary and compare across jurisdictions in the system? What factors drive disparities in outcomes at different stages of the court journey? How does intersectionality impact upon this?
- How do criminogenic needs change throughout time within the criminal justice system? What risks and needs can lead to reappearances across the justice system?
This list is illustrative only and intended to demonstrate the research potential of the dataset. For research priorities, see the areas of research interest (external website) and priority research questions for Data First: Cross-Justice System.
Core documentation
Data dictionary
The Data First data catalogues can be found on the Data First gov.uk webpage. The data dictionaries can also be found in the ADR UK Data Catalogue.
Other supporting resources
| Resource | Description |
| Data First synthetic data | 25,000 row, low-fidelity synthetic datasets are available for all datasets in the cross-justice system linkage. These can be accessed via the UK Data Service. |
| Data Explained: Understanding the nature, extent and outcomes of serious and organised crime cases heard before the Crown Court in England and Wales | This Data Explained output summarises researcher experiences and learning from working with the Ministry of Justice Data First Crown Court and magistrates’ courts defendant case level and prisoner custodial journey level linked datasets in the course of producing research into the nature, extent and outcomes of serious and organised crime cases. |
| Data Explained: Ethnic inequalities in the criminal justice system | This Data Explained summarises researcher experiences and learning from working with the magistrates’ and Crown Court datasets in the course of producing research into ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system. |
| Data Explained: Identifying alcohol orders and alcohol-defined crimes in probation data | This Data Explained summarises researcher experiences and learning from working with the Data First probation dataset (Jan 2011 – Dec 2020) while producing research into how alcohol-treatment or monitoring requirements are being used and whether these are reducing re-offending. |
| Data Explained: Linking probation and criminal courts datasets | This Data Explained summarises researcher experiences and learning from work linking the Data First probation (Jan 2014 - Dec 2020) and magistrates’ courts datasets (Jan 2011 – Dec 2020). This was done while producing research into how alcohol treatment and monitoring requirements are being used and whether they are reducing reoffending. |
| Ministry of Justice ARI 2020 | The MoJ Areas of Research Interest sets out the department’s critical evidence gaps. |
| Data First Research Bulletin 2024 | This bulletin summarises the key findings published to date from research facilitated under Data First, across priority policy themes, such as ethnic disparities in the justice system, youth offending, and repeat offenders. |
| User Representation Panel report 2022 | A report on the Data First User Representation Panel roundtable held 31 January 2022 on the research interest and potential of the criminal justice data. |
| User Representation Panel report 2023 | A report on the Data First User Representation Panel roundtable held 4 May 2023 on the research interest and potential of the criminal justice data. |
Research highlights
- Report: ‘A Profile of Repeat Offending by Children and Young People in England and Wales’, published by the Ministry of Justice
- Report: ‘Data First: Criminal Courts Linked Data’; an exploratory analysis of the magistrates’ and Crown Court defendant datasets, published by the Ministry of Justice
- Data Insight: Inequalities in sentencing in the Crown Court - evidence from the Ministry of Justice Data First criminal justice datasets
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Data Insight: Enforced alcohol abstinence: does it reduce reoffending?
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Final project report (Octopus publication): Court enforced alcohol abstinence: Does it reduce reoffending? (March 2025)
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ADR UK research fellow blog: Ethnicity, gender, and community sentences.
- ADR UK research fellow further outputs: Four ADR UK Research Fellows have undertaken pathfinder research using the linked magistrates’ and Crown Court defendant datasets. Their publications including blogs and Data Insights can be accessed via the ADR UK project page. Two ADR UK Research Fellows are using the probation and criminal justice system linked datasets. A further two ADR UK Research Fellows are using the cross-justice system linked datasets. Sign up to our newsletter for updates.
Accessing the data
Access Data First datasets via the ONS Secure Research Service. Researchers who are fully accredited under the Digital Economy Act (2017) can apply for access.
1. Apply to become an accredited researcher under the Digital Economy Act 2017
- Apply for researcher accreditation through the People & Projects Service: How to access: Apply for researcher accreditation.
2. Apply to access the cross-justice system linked dataset
- View details of the dataset on the ADR UK Data Catalogue and the MoJ Data First Data Catalogues
- Submit an application form to the MoJ: Data First secure access to data - GOV.UK
- Submit an application to the Project Accreditation Service for SRS: Apply for an accredited research project – ONS.
3. Access the data securely
The options available to access this dataset are:
- Safe Rooms – based in ONS offices in Titchfield and Newport, open Monday-Friday, 9.00-16.00
- SafePod Network – a small, self-contained secure room with a single workstation
- Assured Organisational Connectivity – the ability to access the ONS Secure Research Service from your office or home. Check what arrangements your institution already has or can put in place.
View further details and apply for access using the information on the ADR UK Data Catalogue.
ADR UK Research Fellowships
ADR UK funds policy-relevant research using ADR England flagship datasets. Research fellows address priority research questions, generate insights and demonstrate the value of ADR England data. These datasets are held securely within the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Secure Research Service or other trusted research environments.
Related projects
- Data First: Harnessing the potential of linked administrative data for the justice system
- ADR UK Research Fellows: The first users of the Data First magistrates’ and Crown Court datasets
- ADR UK Research Fellows: The first users of the Data First probation and criminal justice linked datasets
- ADR UK PhD studentships cohort
- ADR UK Research Fellows: Data First: Cross-justice system
Publications
- Data First Cross-Justice System linked dataset – England and Wales: Key messages from the Data First User Representation Panel
- Data First User Representation Panel: Terms of Reference
- Data First Academic Advisory Group - Terms of Reference
- Data Insight: Inequalities in sentencing in the Crown Court - evidence from the Ministry of Justice Data First criminal justice datasets
Find out more
More information about the cross-justice system datasets and linkages can be found on the ADR UK website and on the MoJ Data First website.
