Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what offences and under what circumstances police officers of Staffordshire Police, West Yorkshire Police and Leicestershire Police will be required to seek permission of the Crown Prosecution Service before issuing the community resolutions and suspended prosecutions being piloted in those areas.

We plan to put an end to the cautions culture and to replace the conditional caution with the suspended prosecution. Before doing so, Staffordshire Police, West Yorkshire Police and Leicestershire Police are piloting a new, two-tier framework for out of court disposals based on the conditional caution and the community resolution.

Police officers in these areas, as in other parts of England and Wales, may in exceptional circumstances administer a conditional caution for an indictable only offence and must seek the permission of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before doing so. There is no requirement for police officers to seek the approval of the CPS before administering a community resolution.