From public engagement to policy impact: Outcomes from engaging with a justice charity
The original research plan of this project involved investigating differences in court case outcomes among ethnic groups. After consulting with Revolving Doors, a charity specialising in breaking cycles of crisis and crime, the topic was extended to look at prior convictions before sentences of immediate imprisonment for different ethnicities. This work has since been cited in a POST brief on the use of short prison sentences in England and Wales in 2023, and a change around this type of sentencing was seen in the new Sentencing Act in March 2026.
Author: Dr Angela Sorsby
Who carried out this project: This project was led by Dr Angela Sorsby as part of an ADR UK Research Fellowship, in collaboration with Revolving Doors.
Who to contact to find out more: a.sorsby@sheffield.ac.uk
Relevant ADR UK flagship datasets:
The ‘why’
Research indicates that people of minority ethnic backgrounds are overrepresented within the criminal justice system in England and Wales. This issue was highlighted in the Lammy Review which identified the need to investigate and publish how criminal justice outcomes differ for people of different backgrounds.
My research project used magistrates and Crown Court data, from the Data First: Cross-Justice System dataset, to examine differences between ethnic groups in court case outcomes. At the time of my fellowship, this linked dataset was fairly new, with researchers still exploring what could be done with it. Thanks to public engagement facilitated by ADR UK at the start of my fellowship, I was able to engage with experts from the voluntary and community sector who sit on the Data First User Representative Panel. Their feedback helped shape my research to increase its practical application and real-world relevance, thereby increasing its likelihood of influencing policy development. Although engagement with the Panel was facilitated and encouraged by ADR UK, I was keen to do it, as I felt there were lots of bits of my project that would be useful to have input from the third sector on.
The ‘who’
I met with the Data First User Representation Panel, which included experts from relevant justice charities and advocacy groups. This included a representative from the charity Revolving Doors, a charity that champions long-term solutions for justice reform. In addition to engaging with the panel, I also met with other policy-focused people from within Ministry of Justice and Data First.
The ‘where' and 'how’
I attended several online meetings with the Data First User Representation Panel throughout the course of the research project. These meetings were organised by ADR UK as part of the public engagement support offered to ADR UK-funded research fellows.
Successes
My engagement with the panel gave me the idea of not only examining ethnicity differences in court case outcomes, but also investigating ethnicity differences in the number of previous convictions that a person has before receiving an immediate prison sentence for a relatively minor offence. The idea led to the research examining an aspect of ethnicity differences which had not previously been investigated and was also of interest to Revolving Doors, who also produce evidence supporting justice reform. Results showed that both men and women in the White ethnic group on average had more convictions before they received a short prison sentence than those in other ethnic groups.
Following a Data Insight I wrote and published in 2022, these findings were cited within the demographic section of a POSTbrief on “The use of short prison sentences in England and Wales” in July 2023. Since then, in March 2026, UK Parliament implemented the Sentencing Act 2026, and the use of short prison sentences (defined at 12-months or less) in England and Wales has been restricted in favour of Suspended Sentence Orders (SSOs). Although I can’t show a direct impact, I can assume that Government were gathering evidence through the POST brief, alongside other sources, in order to inform the new Sentencing Act.
It’s worth adding that meeting with other members of the panel, like Prison Reform Trust, also helped me to further shape my project and understand everything from a user point of view, because of their direct engagement with justice system users and people with experience of the justice system.
Lessons learned
When I originally pulled together the research application, I didn’t have time to consult beyond academic viewpoints. I think it was great to get feedback on what would be useful for organisations such as those in the Data First User Representation Panel. ADR UK had the ability to bring all these different people together, with expertise directly relevant to my project and other fellows in the same cohort. I learnt that talking to a variety of groups and people, even some who at first seemed more separated from the topic, was valuable. I ended up doing presentations for some of these new contacts. For example with CAFCASS, presenting on my work around ethnicity in relation to criminal justice data which was adjacent to their interests in family court cases.
