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Making criminal justice statistics more transparent and user friendly is the aim of a consultation launched yesterday.

The consultation on improvements to Ministry of Justice statistics seeks views on:

• Introducing a quarterly criminal justice statistics bulletin. This would give an overview of trends in crime, out-of-court disposals, prosecutions, convictions and sentencing.
• Moving to a single measure of re-offending. This would get rid of the six different ways re-offending is measured. This includes consolidating five separate publications on re-offending into a single publication. 
• The definitions of statistics – making the statistics consistent across MoJ publications and clarifying the definition of certain important measurements.

Minister Nick Herbert said: 'Clear and understandable statistics are essential in providing an accurate picture of the way the criminal justice system is working. The Chief Statistician's consultation is an important first step in improving transparency and we look forward to hearing feedback from interested users.'

National Statistician Jil Matheson said: 'High quality, trusted statistics produced independently are essential for understanding what is happening in our society.

'For this to happen the statistics must represent the needs of all users. I therefore welcome this independent consultation by the Chief Statistician of the Ministry of Justice on providing more timely, comprehensive and consistent statistics on the Criminal Justice System.'

The launch of the consultation follows recommendations made in several reports including the UK Statistics Authority Assessment of Criminal Justice Statistics, the Stern Review and Barriers to Trust.

• Consultation on improvements to Ministry of Justice statistics