December 1, 2004: Conditional Cautioning Code Issued

A new Code of Practice on Conditional Cautioning for England and Wales has been published. Conditional Cautioning in essence allows offenders to be given a suitable disposal without the usual court involvement. The Code governs the use of Conditional Cautions under Part 3 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.

The Act defines a Conditional Caution as ‘a caution which is given in respect of an offence committed by the offender and which has conditions attached to it’. If an offender fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with the conditions attached to a Conditional Caution the Act provides for criminal proceedings to be instituted and the caution cancelled. Restorative justice processes can be used as a condition of the caution (where the contact with the victim, direct or indirect, is itself the condition) if both victim and offender consent to this.

The basic criteria which must be satisfied before a Conditional Caution can be considered are:

• the offender is 18 or over
• the offender admits the offence to the authorised person
• there is, in the opinion of the relevant prosecutor, sufficient evidence to charge the offender with the offence

If the above criteria are satisfied, a Conditional Caution may be an alternative to charge, taking into account the factors outlined in the Code.

A Conditional Caution is a statutory development of the non-statutory police caution (or ‘simple caution’) which has long been available, at police or Crown Prosecution Service discretion, as an alternative to prosecution. A Conditional Caution may only be given by a suitably trained authorised person, that is a constable; a person designated as an investigating officer under section 38 of the Police Reform Act 2002; or a person authorised for the purpose by a relevant prosecutor.

Where rehabilitative or reparative conditions (or both) are considered preferable to prosecution, Conditional Cautioning offers a statutory means of enforcing them through prosecution for the original offence in the event of non-compliance. The key to determining whether a Conditional Caution should be given – instead of prosecution or a simple caution – is that imposing specified conditions will be an appropriate and effective means of addressing an offender’s behaviour or making reparation for the effects of the offence on the victim or the community.

Download the full Code here.