In recent years, cautioning has been widely recognized as one of the most effective responses to young offenders. Cautioning is currently regulated by National Standards that are promulgated as part of Home Office circular 58/1990. The current draft circular suggests a more restrictive framework for cautioning in a number of key respects. It restricts the number of cautions for an individual offender to one only. The circular further recommends that cautioning not be used for offenses where both the offense and the circumstances surrounding it are serious. This policy may obstruct the police use of cautioning in those circumstances where it is appropriate to do so in the context of a serious offense, such as robbery. The circular further says that "in the future, offenses which are not considered to warrant a formal caution should be recorded as 'no formal action'." Under this policy there is a risk that the prospect of "no formal action" may mislead individuals into making inappropriate admissions on the inaccurate assumption that this will have no implications for the future. The promotion of cautioning must be sustained. To fail to do so may be to bring many more people unnecessarily into the criminal justice system, thus increasing the cost of criminal justice processing without reducing crime levels.