The use of police cautions to deliver instant justice is to be reviewed because of mounting concern that they allow violent offenders to avoid court.

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, announced the move yesterday, only hours after the Director of Public Prosecutions called in The Times for an investigation of the way that out-of-court penalties operate.

Keir Starmer, QC, the director, and Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, both expressed concern at the way cautions and fixed-penalty notices were working.

Half of all criminal cases in England and Wales are punished out of court. Up to 40,000 cases of assault were dealt with by a caution last year despite guidelines that say they should not normally be used for violent or sexual offences.

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Mr Straw said that he and Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, were concerned at the wide variation in rates of use of “out-of-court” penalties by police forces around the country.

He said the review would be conducted by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform and would involve HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Mr Straw told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One programme: “The guidance about cautioning is actually very clear. It says a simple caution should be used for low-level offending. Only in exceptional circumstances should it be used to deal with more serious offences. I understand the concerns that have been raised . . . but the guidance is actually very clear. What we are going to look at is how that guidance is properly applied.”

Asked if the review would increase the threshold so that no violent offence more serious than common assault would be dealt with out of court, Mr Straw said: “That is basically the way the system is supposed to operate at the moment and we will certainly be looking very clearly at that.”

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