The Probation of Offenders Act 1907 (
7 Edw. 7. c. 17) is an Act of the
United Kingdom Parliament
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...
, commonly referred to as just the Probation Act.
Enactment
The Act was passed on 21 August and originally extended throughout the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until ...
. It remains in force in the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...
.
Summary
The Act allows
judge
A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...
s wide latitude to
dismiss a charge tried
summarily against a defendant even when the court thinks it is proved, or to
conditionally discharge a defendant (whether the charge is tried summarily or on
indictment
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an ind ...
). The power may be invoked when the court is of the opinion that
In practice, cases may be dismissed under the Probation Act for a defendant on condition that he pays a contribution to charity,
[ ] or repays an amount stolen, or pays the costs arising from his actions.
They may also be dismissed where the offence is technical or trivial. The application of the Act has occasionally caused controversy where victims or persons affected by the crime feel that the dismissal is inappropriate.
Despite the name, a dismissal under the Probation Act does not put the offender on
probation
Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offence (law), offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incar ...
in the sense of having to report to and engage with a
probation officer
A probation or parole officer is an official appointed or sworn to investigate, report on, and supervise the conduct of convicted offenders on probation or those released from incarceration to community supervision such as parole. Most probat ...
, unless it is expressed to do so. Indeed, if a defendant is "given the Probation Act", it does not count as a
criminal conviction
In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is guilty of a crime. A conviction may follow a guilty plea that is accepted by the court, a jury trial in which a verdict of guilty is delivered, or a trial by ...
, although it has been known to negatively affect travel abroad.
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External links
Probation of Offenders Act, 1907
References
Parole
United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1907
Criminal law of the United Kingdom
Probation