Police interview under caution
An interview under caution is a recorded questioning where what you say can be used as evidence. You are entitled to free legal advice first, whoever you are. You can answer, decline to answer, or give a written statement, and each of those choices has consequences at a later trial.
Last checked against the law on 22 October 2026.
The caution, in plain terms
You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention something you later rely on in court, and anything you do say may be given in evidence.
The middle part is the one that matters. Silence is not neutral: if you raise something at trial that you could have mentioned in interview, the jury may be invited to draw a conclusion from that.
Get advice first, always
It is free to everyone at the police station, it is not means tested, and asking for it is not an admission of anything.
A solicitor sees disclosure from the officer before the interview, which you do not. What they learn in that conversation shapes what the right approach is.
The three options
Answer questions. Right where you have an account that will hold up and the evidence is straightforward.
Decline to answer. Right where the police have disclosed very little, so nobody can tell what you would be answering.
A prepared written statement, then no comment. This puts your account on record at the time, which answers the adverse inference point, without being questioned on it before anyone knows the case.
It is the one part that cannot be undone
Everything else in a criminal case can be revisited. The interview is read to the jury two years later, exactly as it happened, including the silences.
What to do about it
If an interview is arranged and has not happened yet, that is the point at which advice changes the most. If it has already happened, what was said in it is where any defence now starts.
This page explains a process. It is not legal advice and it is not a substitute for it: what is right in your case depends on facts that are not on this page.