Police Cautions in the UK: Simple and Conditional Cautions Explained

A police caution is a formal, out-of-court way of dealing with an admitted offence without going to court. It sits below a criminal charge, and in England and Wales the current law offers two versions of it: the simple caution and the conditional caution.

What a Caution Is, and Isn't

A caution is not the same as a criminal conviction, but it is not nothing either. It is a formal record, made and kept by the police, that an offence was admitted and dealt with outside the court system. Crown Prosecution Service guidance is explicit that a caution or conditional caution requires the person to admit guilt, in addition to the evidential stage of the Full Code Test being met. An out-of-court resolution generally is not appropriate for someone who does not accept responsibility for the offence.

This admission requirement, combined with the requirement of informed consent described below, is what separates a caution from a charge. A charge does not require the suspect's agreement. A caution does.

Simple Cautions and Conditional Cautions

England and Wales currently operate two kinds of caution.

A simple caution is a straightforward formal warning, generally used for low-level, clearly admitted offending where a prosecution would not be a proportionate response. It carries no further conditions.

A conditional caution, created by section 22 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, attaches specific conditions to the caution, which can be rehabilitative, reparative, or punitive, including a financial penalty in some cases. If the conditions are not met, the offender can be prosecuted for the original offence. Section 22 limits conditional cautions to offenders aged 18 or over; younger offenders are dealt with through separate youth out-of-court disposal arrangements, which this guide does not cover.

Both routes are only available where the person admits the offence and where the evidential and public interest stages of the Full Code Test would otherwise support a prosecution. A decision maker, whether a constable, an investigating officer, or a prosecutor depending on the case, has to be satisfied of both before a caution can even be offered.

You Can Refuse a Caution

Because a caution requires informed consent, you are entitled to refuse one. Refusing does not make the underlying allegation disappear. Instead, it sends the matter back to the police and the CPS for a charging decision under the ordinary Full Code Test, and a prosecution may follow.

Whether accepting or refusing a caution is the right course in a particular case depends entirely on the specific facts and evidence involved, which is exactly the kind of question a solicitor can advise on. Free, independent advice is available through the duty solicitor scheme, and general information is available from Citizens Advice, before deciding how to respond to a caution offer.

How a Caution Affects a DBS Check

Cautions are treated differently depending on which level of Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is being carried out.

Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, a simple caution is spent immediately, and a conditional caution is spent three months after it is given. Because a Basic DBS check only discloses unspent convictions and cautions, a caution essentially never appears on one by the time a check is actually carried out.

Standard and Enhanced checks work differently: they can disclose spent cautions too, unless the caution has become "filtered." For most offences, an adult caution is filtered, meaning it stops being disclosed, six years after it was given. However, a caution for a specified offence, broadly a serious, violent, sexual, or safeguarding-related offence, is never filtered and will always be disclosed on a Standard or Enhanced check. An Enhanced check can also include other relevant local police information at a chief officer's discretion. For more detail on how the levels and filtering rules work, see our guides to the DBS check and spent convictions.

It is worth remembering that the DBS itself only operates in England and Wales. Scotland runs an equivalent system through Disclosure Scotland, and Northern Ireland through AccessNI; both apply their own rules on how a caution-equivalent disposal is disclosed, which are not the same as the DBS filtering rules described above. See our guides to Disclosure Scotland and the PVG scheme and the AccessNI check for those systems.

The Two-Tier Caution Reform: Enacted, Not Yet in Force

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 created a new two-tier system of "diversionary" and "community" cautions, intended eventually to replace the simple and conditional caution system described above. As things stand today, the key provisions establishing these new cautions, including sections 98, 108, 118 and 121, have not been brought into force; the Act itself records them as "not in force at Royal Assent." Only section 116, which gives the power to issue a Code of Practice, has been commenced, since 24 May 2023.

In practical terms, this means the diversionary and community caution system is a future reform, not current law. Anyone dealing with a caution today is dealing with the existing simple and conditional caution framework, not the new two-tier system. If and when the remaining provisions are commenced, this page will be updated to reflect the new framework; until then, treat any reference to diversionary or community cautions as describing the future position, not the present one.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland does not use the simple and conditional caution system described above. Out-of-court resolution in Scotland is handled through the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and police direct measures, under a separate framework. Northern Ireland similarly runs its own out-of-court disposal arrangements, administered through the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland. Neither nation's mechanics mirror the England and Wales system, and this guide does not attempt to describe them in detail.

This guide explains the current law on police cautions in general terms; it is not legal advice for a specific case. Anyone offered a caution, or under investigation, can get free advice through the duty solicitor scheme or a Citizens Advice bureau. For the wider picture, see the UK Criminal Law hub.