§ Mr. Bestasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his policy towards the use of cautions to drunks to keep them out of court; and if he will give the most recent statistics he has on the effectiveness of the cautioning system.
§ Mr. MellorOur policy is to keep drunkenness offenders out of court whereever possible. Cautioning is encouraged; 26,000 drunkenness offenders were cautioned in 1985, compared with 2,000 in 1983. As my hon. Friend knows, the number found guilty of drunkenness offences has fallen from 107,600 in 1983 to 56,400 in 1985.