Absolute and Conditional Discharges

What is a discharge?

Among court-imposed sentences, the discharge sits at the bottom of the sentencing hierarchy and can take the form of an absolute discharge or a conditional discharge. An absolute discharge is the least severe sentence a court can impose upon conviction, as it does not require anything from the offender, nor does it impose any restrictions on their future conduct. A conditional discharge, on the other hand, requires that the offender should not commit any further offences during the specified period, which may be up to three years. The power to impose an absolute or conditional discharge comes from sections 79 and 80 of the Sentencing Act 2020, respectively. A court may impose either an absolute or conditional discharge ‘if it is of the opinion that it is inexpedient to inflict punishment, having regard to the circumstances, including—(a) the nature of the offence, and (b) the character of the offender.’¹

Absolute discharges are the rarer of the two forms and are reserved for cases where the offence is very minor, or where there are particular factors relating to the defendant or other surrounding circumstances, which justify the imposition of an absolute discharge. A conditional discharge may be imposed where a court is prepared to impose no sanction for an offence on the condition that the offender commits no further offences during the specified period. For the purposes of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, a conviction for which an absolute discharge has been imposed becomes immediately spent (and therefore does not usually have to be disclosed when asked about convictions for criminal offences) and a conditional discharge becomes spent upon the expiration of the specified term.

What happens when a person who receives a conditional discharge is convicted of a further offence?

If a person is convicted of a further offence during the specified period of a conditional discharge, they can be re-sentenced for the offence for which they received the conditional discharge. The offender can then be sentenced for the original offence in any way that would have been possible if they had just been just convicted of it (and will also be sentenced for the new offence).

Other orders in combination with absolute and conditional discharges

Although a discharge imposes no sanction for an offence, it can be combined with a number of other orders, should a court consider it appropriate. When imposing an absolute discharge, the court can also combine it with any of the following:

• compensation order
• deprivation order
• restitution order
• disqualification order
• recommendation for deportation
• costs
• confiscation order
• exclusion order under the Licensed Premises (Exclusion of Certain Persons) Act 198
• unlawful profit order.

A conditional discharge can be combined with any of the orders available when imposing an absolute discharge, plus any of the following: a football banning order; a criminal behaviour order; a serious crime prevention order.

How frequently are absolute and conditional discharges imposed?

The absolute discharge is a somewhat unusual sentencing disposal as it delivers no sanction for the offence for which the person has been convicted, and does not impose any restrictions on their future behaviour. If the offender is convicted of a further offence shortly after they have received an absolute discharge, then the decision not to impose any sanction for the previous offence cannot be re-visited. Many cases that are so minor as to warrant an absolute discharge will not reach the courts, as the offender might accept a caution for the offence, or the Crown Prosecution Service may conclude that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute the offence, as the likely penalty will be nominal.

It is, therefore, to be expected that absolute discharges will be used comparatively rarely – and very rarely indeed in response to more serious offences. For the most serious category of cases, indictable-only (which can be tried only in the Crown Court), there were 23 absolute discharges and 53 conditional discharges imposed in the year ending September 2024.² Discharges are used more frequently in response to less serious summary offences (which can be tried only in the magistrates’ courts), with 889 absolute discharges and 11,463 conditional discharges imposed for non-motoring summary offences in the year ending September 2024.³

The conditional discharge is a less unusual sentencing disposal as it, in effect, serves as a ‘sword of Damocles’ hanging over the offender during the specified period.

1. See section 79(3) of the Sentencing Act 2020 for this provision in relation to absolute discharges and section 80(4) of the Sentencing Act 2020 for conditional discharges. For the history of absolute and conditional discharges, see the discussion in Clarke [2009] EWCA Crim 1074. ↩︎
2. Ministry of Justice (2025) Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: September 2024, Table Q5.1a. ↩︎
3. Ministry of Justice (2025) Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: September 2024, Table Q5.1a. ↩︎