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Police Cautions

Volume 479: debated on Monday 21 July 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many cases of (a) violence against the person, (b) sexual offences, (c) robbery, (d) burglary, (e) theft, (f) fraud and forgery, (g) criminal damage and (h) drugs offences police cautions were given in each of the last five years; and what proportion of such cases were first offences. (219172)

I have been asked to reply.

The number of offenders issued with a caution for (a) violence against the person, (b) sexual offences, (c) robbery, (d) burglary, (e) theft, (f) fraud and forgery, (g) criminal damage and (h) drugs offences in England and Wales for the years 2002 to 2006 is shown in the following table.

Data from the court proceedings database held by the Ministry of Justice cannot separately identify what proportion of cautions were first offences.

Cautions data for 2007 will be available in the autumn of 2008.

The number of defendants issued with a caution for offences relating to various types of offences in England and Wales, 2002 to 20061,2,3Offence type20022003200420052006Violence against the person23,60728,76036,61051,02057,273Sexual offences1,2031,3591,5531,7611,922Burglary5,7715,5685,6046,4517,687Robbery408422451622712Theft and handling stolen goods54,21454,46661,94467,61972,369 Fraud and forgery5,3355,4846,0366,9368,024Criminal damage3,1023,7265,4957,2469,018Drug offences44,92245,70732,62134,39037,426 1 These data are on the principal offence basis.2 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.3 From 1 June 2000 the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 came into force nationally and removed the use of cautions for persons under 18 and replaced them with reprimands and final warnings. These figures have been included in the totals.Source:CJEAU—Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Ministry of Justice