Video: Damian Green announces police cautions review Mr Green said a rapid review of guidance on when a police officer can recommend a caution would report to the Home Office in May. He added that the Government's goal was to see the use of cautions restricted to ensure serious criminals would never escape punishment. "The cautions system is not being used as it should be for low-level offences, for first time offenders, so what we want to make sure is that cautions are used appropriately and not overused," he said. Police handed out 205,700 cautions in the 12 months ending in September 2012, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Justice. It represented a 12% decrease compared with the previous 12 months, and a 44% fall from the 12 months to September 2007 when the use of cautions peaked at 367,300. "We found that one in five sexual offences is resulting in a caution, we found too many knife crime offences are being used for cautions and we found instances, for example, one burglar who'd committed 113 burglaries had received a caution at the end of that," said Mr Green. Clearly none of that is right, that would send out a signal that the criminal justice system is being too soft in some areas, so we're determined to grip that. Sources: ITN and PA