Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he has taken to reduce the number of cautions issued since 2010.

The use of cautions is at its lowest point for 30 years and nearly half the level seen in 2007. The total number of cautions has decreased by 11% in the year ending June 2014 as compared to the previous 12 months. However, the Government is not complacent and wants to ensure that serious offences are always brought to court.

The Ministry of Justice carried out a review of simple cautions in early 2013, to examine the way in which simple cautions were being used and consider the need for any changes to policy or practice.

Following this review, the Ministry of Justice issued updated guidance in November 2013 on the process to be followed by the police when administering simple cautions for adult offenders. This placed limits on the circumstances in which a simple caution should be issued, particularly for serious offences. We have banned the use of simple cautions for possession of any offensive weapon (including a knife), supplying Class A drugs and a range of sexual offences against children, including child prostitution and pornography.

The Government is legislating in the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill to place further restrictions on the use of cautions for certain serious offences which will be set out in secondary legislation, as well as stopping their use for indictable only offences and repeat offenders (unless there are exceptional circumstances).

In 2013 we consulted on whether there is a need for more radical change in the out of court disposal framework, which includes simple cautions. After this, the Government announced plans to simplify the current range of disposals into two tiers: a suspended prosecution (based around the conditional caution) and a new statutory community resolution.

This new framework would remove the option of a simple caution and move away from a system of warnings and reprimands. It would give the police the power to tackle offending behaviour in a more effective way. Offenders would be required to take action to comply with the new disposals and face meaningful consequences if they failed to do so.

The proposed framework is being piloted in three police forces before a decision is taken on whether to roll them out across England and Wales.