Deferred Prosecutions

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FOI/25/7566

Version Date: 06/02/2025

The Out of Court Resolutions Team have provided the following information.

I understand that your force has (or had) a deferred prosecution scheme in place (see page 11 of the Out of Court Disposals (Resolutions) National Strategy v2.2).

Please may you:

1. confirm whether a deferred prosecution scheme is in operation;
2. provide a copy of any guidance note (or advice document(s)) relating to the Deferred Prosecution Scheme disposal option (including both deferred prosecutions and deferred cautions).

See link below to the Force website:

Deferred Charge | Devon & Cornwall Police

3. provide a copy of any statistics held by you on the use of the Deferred Prosecution Scheme disposal option, including how many times it has been used.

4,156 people that have been through Deferred Charge since October 2017.

The compliance rate for Deferred Charge is high – around 90%.