The number of cautions, penalty notices for disorder (PNDs) issued in each police force area in England and Wales is shown in Table 1 and Table 2, respectively. Data on cautions and PNDs are currently available to 31 December 2008 and are compiled by calendar year. Data provided by Ministry of Justice.
Cautions and court proceedings data for 2009 are expected to be published in the autumn, 2010.
The only formal warning statistics that are collected centrally are cannabis warnings. Police forces have been able to issue a formal warning for possession of cannabis, known as a cannabis warning, since 1 April 2004. Statistics on cannabis warnings for 2007-08 and 2008-09 are given in table 3.
Data provided by the Home Office.
Police force area 2007 2008 Avon and Somerset 10,807 10,045 Bedfordshire 3,293 3,214 Cambridgeshire 4,437 4,287 Cheshire 4,812 4,799 City of London 802 589 Cleveland 5,397 5,604 Cumbria 3,402 2,980 Derbyshire 5,786 5,074 Devon and Cornwall 10,209 9,321 Dorset 3,850 3,686 Durham 4,025 3,793 Essex 14,369 10,499 Gloucestershire 3,501 3,744 Greater Manchester 13,123 11,404 Hampshire 9,185 7,437 Hertfordshire 6,526 6,490 Humberside 5,982 5,252 Kent 12,057 10,627 Lancashire 12,573 10,797 Leicestershire 5,589 4,480 Lincolnshire 4,067 4,326 Merseyside 6,464 7,077 Metropolitan Police 48,904 50,021 Norfolk 3,838 3,901 North Yorkshire 3,616 3,289 Northamptonshire 4,778 4,132 Northumbria 15,897 14,639 Nottinghamshire 8,910 6,790 South Yorkshire 11,635 9,441 Staffordshire 8,731 4,923 Suffolk 4,311 4,093 Surrey 5,652 4,157 Sussex 11,518 8,495 Thames Valley 13,543 12,420 Warwickshire 3,838 3,225 West Mercia 7,793 7,092 West Midlands 21,582 20,968 West Yorkshire 17,753 12,833 Wiltshire 2,341 2,921 England 344,896 308,865 Dyfed-Powys 4,437 3,865 Gwent 5,735 4,651 North Wales 2,239 3,604 South Wales 5,588 5,909 Wales 17,999 18,029 England and Wales 362,895 326,894 1 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 warnings. These figures have been included in the totals. 2 These cautions statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When an offender has been cautioned for two or more offences at the same time the principal offence is the more serious offence. Note: 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.
Police force area 2007 2008 Avon and Somerset 2,950 3,145 Bedfordshire 1,336 1,340 British Transport police 4,867 4,479 Cambridgeshire 2,249 2,065 Cheshire 2,206 2,012 City of London 415 217 Cleveland 3,803 3,468 Cumbria 1,650 1,099 Derbyshire 2,730 2,380 Devon and Cornwall 5,703 3,277 Dorset 1,798 1,309 Durham 1,839 1,786 Essex 4,402 3,713 Gloucestershire 2,330 918 Greater Manchester 9,896 8,499 Hampshire 6,005 3,854 Hertfordshire 4,428 3,326 Humberside 8,339 6,414 Kent 7,960 8,403 Lancashire 12,856 10,595 Leicestershire 2,519 2,123 Lincolnshire 1,758 1,284 Merseyside 9,270 10,573 Metropolitan 24,655 24,678 Norfolk 1,560 2,038 North Yorkshire 3,715 2,285 Northamptonshire 2,377 1,517 Northumbria 7,542 7,615 Nottinghamshire 2,551 2,035 South Yorkshire 7,983 7,403 Staffordshire 2,967 2,526 Suffolk 1,879 1,850 Surrey 3,786 2,186 Sussex 5,091 3,339 Thames Valley 8,538 7,859 Warwickshire 897 824 West Mercia 2,914 2,568 West Midlands 7,860 6,053 West Yorkshire 6,002 3,393 Wiltshire 1,203 1,958 England 192,829 166,406 Dyfed Powys 995 996 Gwent 1,861 1,978 North Wales 5,907 3,892 South Wales 5,952 2,892 Wales 14,715 9,758 England and Wales 207,544 176,164 1 First year of PND scheme. Fully rolled out to all forces on 1 April 2004. Note: The British Transport police started issuing PNDs on 1 March 2006
Police force area 2007-08 2008-091 Avon and Somerset 2,554 2,598 Bedfordshire 289 347 British Transport Police 1,707 3,214 Cambridgeshire 1,594 1,257 Cheshire 757 1,109 Cleveland 686 851 Cumbria 218 272 Derbyshire 520 600 Devon and Cornwall 1,380 1,571 Dorset 393 349 Durham 256 333 Dyfed-Powys 882 794 Essex 1,348 1,597 Gloucestershire 459 529 Greater Manchester 5,311 5,136 Gwent 757 998 Hampshire 2,260 1,943 Hertfordshire 1,485 1,897 Humberside 895 991 Kent 846 1,276 Lancashire 528 791 Leicestershire 1,967 1,701 Lincolnshire 508 491 London, City of 436 506 Merseyside 7,229 8,114 Metropolitan police 46,979 47,204 Norfolk 786 751 Northamptonshire 311 439 Northumbria 916 1,459 North Wales 985 1,059 North Yorkshire 701 665 Nottinghamshire 1,210 950 South Wales 2,414 2,220 South Yorkshire 1,296 1,627 Staffordshire 1,150 1,153 Suffolk 599 744 Surrey 993 811 Sussex 2,447 1,369 Thames Valley 2,753 2,518 Warwickshire 399 342 West Mercia 756 872 West Midlands 2,286 2,229 West Yorkshire 1,340 1,245 Wiltshire 218 329 England and Wales 103,804 107,251 1 Since 26 January 2009, penalty notices for disorder (PNDs) can be given for cannabis possession. Up to the end of March 2009 such PNDs were counted together with cannabis warnings.