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<p>The number of offenders (including young people) cautioned, for offences of rape,
sexual assault, robbery and burglary, by months in England and Wales from 2010 to
2013 (latest available) can be viewed in the table. There were no cautions administered
for murder.</p><p><del class="ministerial">Simple cautions (previously police cautions)
are a non-statutory disposal available to the police to dispose of any offence committed
by an adult and designed for dealing with low level, mainly first time offending.
The Government does not believe that cautions are appropriate for serious offences.
We issued new guidelines on 14 November 2014 following a detailed review of how cautions
were being used by police forces, and are strengthening the law to prevent cautions
being used for serious offences.</del></p><p> </p><p>The Ministry of Justice issues
guidance on the process to be followed by the police and the CPS when they are administering
simple cautions for adult offenders. This guidance states that the use of a simple
caution for indictable only offences, such as rape, should only be given following
authorisation by the CPS. These will be cases where there were exceptional circumstances
which would mean that it was not in the public interest to prosecute.</p><p> </p><p>The
overall number of simple cautions issued has halved since 2007. The cautioning rate,
that is, the number of offenders cautioned as a percentage of offenders who were either
cautioned or convicted, in 2013 was 20 per cent; this has declined from a peak of
31 per cent in 2007.</p><p>The Government is clear that serious offences should always
be brought to court and to ensure that there is increased public confidence in the
justice system last year announced limits on the use of simple cautions. These changes
restrict the use of cautions for indictable only offences and certain serious either
way offences unless there are exceptional circumstances and a senior police officer,
as well as the CPS for certain cases, has agreed that a caution should be administered.</p><p>The
MOJ guidance on Adult Simple Cautions was amended in November last year to reflect
these changes, and we are currently legislating in the Criminal Justice and Courts
Bill to place statutory restrictions around their use.</p><p> </p>
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