Police Caution - Administration

Administration

Police and other enforcement agencies such as Local Authorities and Government departments have the power to administer a simple caution, while conditional cautions only be administered only by the police or a person authorised by a relevant prosecutor. However, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has a role to play in helping the police to ensure that the Home Office Guidelines on the Cautioning of Offenders are applied consistently and fairly.

CPS officers are instructed to refer to the police any case in which they consider a caution is the appropriate way of handling the offence. Where the CPS remains satisfied that a caution is appropriate but the police refuse to administer one, the CPS guidance recommends that the case is not accepted for the prosecution.

In order to safeguard the offender's interests, the following conditions must be met before a caution can be administered:

• there must be evidence of guilt sufficient to give a realistic prospect of conviction;
• the offender must admit the offence;
• the offender must understand the significance of a caution and give informed consent to being cautioned.

Where the available evidence does not meet the standard normally required to bring a prosecution, a caution cannot be administered. A caution will not be appropriate where a person does not make a clear and reliable admission of the offence (for example if intent is denied or there are doubts about his mental health or intellectual capacity).

The Home Office recommends that cautions should never be used for the most serious offences (indictable-only offences). However, cautions are given for indictable-only offences. The CPS suggests that this might be a result of the police issuing a caution for the offence that was reported or first suspected, rather than the offence that is revealed by the evidence at the end of the investigation. However, a caution must be administered and recorded for the correct offence, that is, for the offence revealed by the evidence. The CPS goes on to say that it will only be in rare circumstances that a caution will be a suitable disposition for an indictable offence.

Cautions can be administered in the case of an offence that is triable either-way or summarily.