The available information is provided in the following table:
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Crown court Total sentenced 539 637 659 676 641 643 593 610 678 713 673 753 Total immediate custody 282 359 376 397 448 407 360 415 448 417 387 351 Total suspended sentences 21 14 24 8 9 14 12 17 11 97 131 136 Average custodial sentence length (months) 17.5 19.1 19.3 20.5 20.9 25.4 26.5 25.3 25.5 24.7 26.6 21.3 Magistrates court Total sentenced 3,724 3,891 4,376 3,153 2,858 2,375 2,607 2,716 2,959 2,384 2,285 2,755 Total immediate custody 108 161 227 239 202 139 196 228 200 118 119 164 Total suspended sentences 0 4 1 2 1 2 4 0 36 98 73 89 Average custodial sentence length (months) 3.1 3.2 2.7 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.0 2.9 2.8 2.9 2.6 2.4 1 Excludes life and indeterminate sentences. Suspended sentence orders were introduced in April 2005. Notes: 1. These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. 2. The data have been taken from the Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings database. The data are presented on the principal offence basis. Where an offender has been sentenced for more than one offence the principal offence is the one for which the heaviest sentence was imposed. Where the same sentence has been imposed for two or more offences the principal offence is the one for which the statutory maximum is most severe.