To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in respect of how many incidents of (a) violence against the person, (b) sexual offences, (c) robbery, (d) burglary, (e) theft, (f) fraud and forgery, (g) criminal damages and (h) drugs offences police cautions were given in (i) 2007-08 and (ii) 2008-09; and what proportion of such incidents was first offences in each such year. (290718)

[holding answer 9 September 2009]: The numbers of cautions issued by the police for the specified offence groups are given in the table. Information on whether such incidents were first offences cannot be derived from the police recorded crime statistics collected centrally by the Home Office.