Rights and LimitsAfter an arrestRecorded police warnings and fiscal fines: Scotland has no "caution"
Recorded police warnings and fiscal fines: Scotland has no "caution"
What you must do, and what you can refuse
Every claim below links to the law it comes from, with the wording quoted so you can check it yourself.
You can refuse
No penalty for saying no.
You are entitled to refuse a fiscal fine or other conditional offer by giving written notice within the stated period — doing so is treated as a request to be tried for the offence, not simply left unresolved.
Refusing is a genuine option, but the consequence is that the matter is decided at trial, not that it is dropped.
Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, s.302(2)(f)
“shall state that refusal of a conditional offer under paragraph (ca)(i) above will be treated as a request by the alleged offender to be tried for the offence”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-31
Where you are deemed to have accepted a fixed penalty offer, you may request that it be recalled.
A request is only valid on limited grounds set out in section 302C(2) — broadly, that you did not receive the offer and would have refused it. Asking is not the same as succeeding.
Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, s.302C(1)
“Where an alleged offender is deemed to have accepted— a fixed penalty offer by virtue of section 302(2)(ca)(ii) of this Act;— the alleged offender may request that it be recalled.”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-31
Lawful to refuse — but it costs you
Not an offence, but it carries a penalty or an inference.
Doing nothing in response to a conditional offer of a fixed penalty does not make it lapse — you are deemed to have accepted it, even though you made no payment.
Silence is treated as acceptance, not refusal. If you intend to contest it, you must give written notice within the stated period.
Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, s.302(2)(ca)(ii)
“that unless the alleged offender gives such notice, the alleged offender will be deemed to have accepted the conditional offer (even where no payment is made in respect of the offer)”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-31
Accepting or being deemed to accept a direct measure such as a fiscal fine is not recorded as a conviction, but the fact that you accepted it can still be disclosed to a court in any proceedings for a further offence committed within 2 years.
Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, s.302(2)(e)(ii)
“that the fact that the offer has been accepted, or deemed to have been accepted, may be disclosed to the court in any proceedings for an offence committed by the alleged offender within the period of two years beginning on the day of acceptance of the offer”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-31
If you refuse a recorded police warning when it is offered, the police can convert it into an antisocial behaviour fixed penalty notice, or report the case to the procurator fiscal, which can mean going to court.
mygov.scot, "Police and fiscal warnings, fines and compensation" — If you refuse the warning
“The police can change your warning to an 'antisocial behaviour fixed penalty notice' – a type of fine.—Or, they can report the case to the procurator fiscal. This means you might have to go to court.”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-31
Information about a recorded police warning is kept by the police for 2 years and can be taken into account if you commit another offence in that time.
mygov.scot, "Police and fiscal warnings, fines and compensation" — What happens with information about your warning
“The police will keep information about your warning for 2 years. It can be taken into account if you commit another crime in that time.”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-31
A recorded police warning is not automatically included on a Level 2 or PVG scheme disclosure, but a chief constable can still choose to add it as separately relevant information if they reasonably believe it is relevant to the disclosure.
mygov.scot, "Police and fiscal warnings, fines and compensation" — What happens with information about your warning
“Your police warning will not automatically be included on Level 2—But a chief constable can include information about your warning as 'Other Relevant Information', if they reasonably believe that: it's relevant to the disclosure's purpose”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-31
Paying a fiscal fine within the stated period formally discharges your liability to conviction for the offence.
Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, s.302(2)(c)
“shall indicate that if, within 28 days of the date on which the conditional offer was issued, or such longer period as may be specified in the conditional offer, the alleged offender accepts the offer by making payment in respect of the fixed penalty to the clerk of court specified in the conditional offer at the address therein mentioned, any liability to conviction of the offence shall be discharged”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-31
Accepting, or being deemed to accept, a fiscal fine or other direct measure is not itself a conviction and must not be recorded as one.
Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, s.302(2)(e)(i)
“that the acceptance of the offer in the manner described in paragraph (c) above, or deemed acceptance of the offer as described in paragraph (ca)(ii) above, shall not be a conviction nor be recorded as such”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-31
In Scottish disclosure law the term "caution" refers only to a caution given in England, Wales or Northern Ireland — Scotland has no caution disposal of its own for a Level 2 disclosure to record.
Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020, s.69 — interpretation of Part 1
“caution " means a caution given to a person in England and Wales or Northern Ireland in respect of an offence which, at the time when the caution is given, the person has admitted”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-31
Part 5 of the Police Act 1997 — the DBS certificate scheme used in England and Wales — was repealed for Scotland from 1 April 2025; the current scheme is the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020.
Police Act 1997, s.125 — amendment annotation recording repeal of Part 5 for Scotland
“Pt. 5 repealed (S.) (1.4.2025) by Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 (asp 13) , s. 97 , sch. 5 para. 3”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-31
A Level 2 disclosure contains the prescribed details of every criminal disposal recorded against you in central records.
Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020, s.8(1)(a)
“containing the prescribed details of every criminal disposal incurred by the individual that is recorded in central records or, if there are no such disposals, stating that fact”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-31
Before providing a Level 2 disclosure, the Scottish Ministers must ask the chief constable for any information the chief constable reasonably believes is relevant and ought to be included — the route through which a warning can still reach a disclosure without being an automatic entry.
Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020, s.14(1)
“the Scottish Ministers must request the chief constable to provide any information relating to the applicant which—a the chief constable reasonably believes to be relevant for the purpose of the disclosure, and b in the chief constable's opinion ought to be included in the disclosure”
Read it at legislation.gov.ukquote checked 2026-08-31
There is no Scottish "caution"
If you have come across advice about a “caution” in a police custody suite, check where it was written for. In Scotland, the word does not describe a Scottish disposal at all. The Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 defines “caution”, for the purposes of what appears on a Scottish disclosure certificate, as a caution given to a person in England and Wales or Northern Ireland. Scotland simply does not run its own police caution scheme.
What Scotland has instead are two different things: a recorded police warning, given by the police, and a fiscal fine or one of several other “direct measures” issued by the procurator fiscal — the prosecutor. Both are genuinely different mechanisms from an English caution, with different rules.
The recorded police warning
The police can give you a recorded police warning if you are 16 or over and not on a compulsory supervision order. If you refuse the warning when it is offered, the police do not simply drop the matter: they can convert it into an antisocial behaviour fixed penalty notice — a fine — or report the case to the procurator fiscal, which can mean going to court.
You have 28 days to appeal a recorded police warning, and the appeal has to be made in writing. An appeal can itself lead to the police sending a report to the procurator fiscal, so it is not a risk-free formality.
The police keep information about a warning for 2 years, and it can be taken into account if you commit another offence within that time. It is not automatically included on a Level 2 or PVG scheme disclosure — but a chief constable can still choose to add it as separate relevant information if they reasonably believe it is relevant to what the disclosure is for.
The fiscal fine, and the trap in how it is accepted
A fiscal fine is one of several “direct measures” the procurator fiscal can offer instead of prosecution — alongside a fiscal warning, a compensation offer, and a fiscal work offer. Accepting a direct measure means you will not go to court or get a criminal conviction; the prosecuting authority’s own description is that the accused “accepts responsibility for the crime but will not have a formal criminal conviction recorded against their name”.
Here is the trap worth knowing about. If you pay the fixed penalty within the stated period, that liability is formally discharged. But if you do nothing at all — no payment, and no written notice refusing the offer — the law does not treat that as the matter lapsing. You are deemed to have accepted the offer, even though you never paid it. Silence is not a way of avoiding it.
If you are deemed to have accepted an offer this way, you can ask for it to be recalled. Refusing a conditional offer properly, by giving written notice, is instead treated as a request to be tried for the offence — so refusing is a real option, but it is not the same as ignoring the offer and hoping it disappears.
Disclosure: Level 2, not a DBS certificate
The England & Wales page on this site about cautions and DBS checks is built on the Police Act 1997. That Act’s Part 5 — the certificates-of-criminal-records regime that creates standard and enhanced DBS certificates — was repealed for Scotland from 1 April 2025. It has been replaced by the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020, and the certificate it creates is called a Level 2 disclosure, not a DBS certificate.
A Level 2 disclosure contains the details of every “criminal disposal” recorded against you in central records. Consistently with there being no Scottish caution, the disposals that scheme actually defines are convictions and an “unspent caution” — and, as above, “caution” there means one given in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. A recorded police warning or a fiscal fine given in Scotland is not itself a “criminal disposal” in that defined sense.
That does not mean it can never surface on a Level 2 disclosure. Before providing one, the Scottish Ministers must ask the chief constable for any information the chief constable reasonably believes is relevant and ought to be included — the statutory basis for the “Other Relevant Information” route described above, through which a warning can still be added even though it is not automatic.
Last reviewed 2026-08-31. Next review due 2027-02-28. No solicitor has reviewed this page — see [email protected] if you think something here is wrong.