DRUG CAUTIONS GO OFF THE RECORD

The slate is to be wiped clean for hundreds of thousands of people who have
had to admit to employers that they have been cautioned by police.

The plans announced by Jack Straw yesterday will be particularly important
to thousands of young people including his own son who have been
cautioned for minor drugs offences.

The move, which will be seen as a softening of the official stance on
drugs, came as the Home Office rejected the key recommendations of an
independent inquiry into drug laws.

Until now, a police caution, reprimand or final warning has been deemed to
be part of a criminal record. That meant it had to be declared if raised at
a job interview and could lead to a rejection of visa applications. Such
warnings are never expunged under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act,
1974, but the Home Office now says that they should be considered as spent
immediately. The police will still keep a record of cautions and may use
them as evidence in future criminal proceedings.

In its response to the drugs inquiry, the Home Office said: "The Government
has accepted that there is a problem relating to the stigma attached to
possessing a caution; for example when asked to confirm the existence of a
criminal record by a prospective employer."

Cautions are given after a person has been arrested. He or she is taken to
a police station and, if they admit the offence, are formally cautioned.
Reprimands and final warnings are issued to offenders aged between 10 and
17. A total of 266,100 people were cautioned in 1999, about a quarter of
them for drugs offences.

The most public cases of caution and reprimand in recent years involved
William Straw and Euan Blair, elder son of the Prime Minister. William
Straw was cautioned in 1998 after admitting selling cannabis to a
journalist for ?10. Euan Blair, 16, was reprimanded for being drunk and
incapable in Leicester Square last year.

Although it plans to change the status of cautions, the Government rejected
most of Lady Runciman of Doxford's report on drugs, which called for
reclassification and an end to jail terms for possession of cannabis and
Ecstasy. Lady Runciman condemned the response as mistaken and complacent.