Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many youth conditional cautions were issued by age in each reporting year since 2010.

The amount of Youth Conditional Cautions issued per year is published in the Out of court disposals data tool which can be found at Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2022. To view the total number of YCCs issued in each year and by age, in the data tool, navigate to the ‘Cautions’ tab. The breakdown by youth conditional cautions is available from 2019. Data for earlier years is not routinely published and is included below.

Amount of Youth Conditional Cautions issued per year:

Amount of Youth Conditional Cautions issued per year, by age:

Data in the published out of court disposals tool (linked above) may show youth cautions for ages 18 and above, these should be considered 'unknown age' as the age in these cases will not have been recorded accurately on the PNC. YCCs can only be issued to an offender aged 10 to 17 years old. Offenders aged 18 and above irrespective of their age when the offence was committed should be given a conditional caution.

The sharp increase in the use of YCCs from 2012 to 2013 is due to amendments introduced by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. This abolished reprimands and final warnings and replaced them with a new system of youth cautions and youth conditional cautions which came into force on 8 April 2013.