Accepting a Caution

Accepting a 'Simple Caution'

Sometimes the police will offer an arrested person a 'caution' as an alternative to being charged and going to court. Whether or not you agree to be cautioned is up to you, but you should be be fully aware of the consequences of accepting a caution - and the reasons why one might be offered.

A caution is an admission of guilt

According to the Home Office:

A Simple Caution forms part of your criminal record and may influence how you are dealt with - should you come to the notice of the police again. Simple Cautions given for recordable offences are entered on the Police National Computer and the fact that you have received a Simple Caution may also be cited in any subsequent court proceedings. They can be quoted on a Standard or Enhanced Disclosure issued by the Criminal Records Bureau and thus can be made known to a prospective employer.

Simple Cautions are not covered under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974) and therefore never become 'spent'. This means that the Act does not allow an individual to lawfully conceal a Simple Caution if asked specifically if they have received any cautions, for example by prospective employers. However a person will not be required to admit the existence of previous Simple Cautions if asked whether they have any criminal convictions.

Where the an offence is listed in Schedule 3 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, accepting a Simple Caution will result in the offender becoming a "relevant offender" for the purposes of the notification and registration requirements of Part 2 of the Act. In common terms, you will be put on the 'sex offenders register'.

Often the police will offer a caution when there is not enough evidence to go to trial, but it may also be offered where the likely penalty for the offence is so low that it does not justify the court costs. From the point of view of the police, a Simple Caution for a recorded offence is treated as "an offence brought to justice" (OBTJ) - in other words it contributes to the statistics of solved crimes.

Home Office guidance to the police requires that a suspect be made aware of the significance of a Simple Caution:

There has been at least one recent case where a naturist who had been arrested was persuaded to accept a caution by police behaviour which flagrantly ignored ALL of the rules set out above.

For these reasons, you are strongly advised never to accept a caution until you have received proper legal advice and fully understand the consequences.

Conditional Cautions

(proposed changes in the Criminal Justice Bill)

Under the new law the Crown Prosecution Service will have the power to instruct the police to offer the suspect a “conditional caution”. This will not replace the ordinary caution but is aimed to cover situations where the CPS believe that charges are not necessary but the ordinary caution is inadequate. The conditions, which may be attached to these cautions, must have one or both of the following objects:

• ensuring or facilitating the rehabilitation of the offender
• ensuring that he makes reparation for the offence

The nature of the exact conditions will be prepared later in a Code of Practice prepared by the Secretary of State. They are likely to include such measures as confronting the victims of crime or community service.

It seems likely that the new conditional caution will be used when it is deemed that the ordinary caution is insufficient, but that it is not in the public interest for the case to go to court. It could be argued that thisit is a way of imposing a community service penalty, without the time and expense of a court hearing.

Please Note:
The information given on this page is intended only as a general guide to the the legal position . It was not written by a legally-qualified individual.
It should not be relied upon as a definitive guide to the law , and is only applicable to England and Wales. The law in Scotland and Northern Ireland may be different.
Neither the author nor the publishers of this FactFile can be held responsible should naturism or nudity cause you to be arrested and / or prosecuted for any offence.