§ Mr. ClappisonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offenders aged 10 to 19 years to whom one caution has already been administered have received(a) a second and (b) more than two cautions in respect of further offences in each year since 1994. [19815]
§ Mr. MichaelData routinely available centrally do not include details of repeat cautions.
For a sample of offenders cautioned for standard list offences in ten police forces during one week in November 1991, a record was submitted centrally on their first subsequent caution over the next two years.
696WFrom this sample, it is estimated that 20,800 offenders aged 10 to 19, who were administered a first caution for an indictable offence in 1991, received a subsequent caution for a standard list offence in the next two years. An estimate relating to those cautioned for summary offences is not available.
It should be noted that concern about repeat cautioning led to revised guidance being issued in March 1994 (Home Office Circular 18/1994) to discourage the use of repeat cautions. In a sample of offenders cautioned for standard list offences in all but two police forces in November 1994, the proportion of those aged 10 to 19 who had one previous caution was 11 per cent. The proportion with more than one caution was 6 per cent. In a similar sample collected in 1991, the respective proportions were 16 per cent. and 10 per cent.
Offences included in the "standard list" are given in appendices 4 and 5 of "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, 1996" (Cm. 3764). These include all indictable and some of the more serious summary offences.