The Children’s Court can release a child unsupervised in the community on an undertaking. The child is released on the condition that they undertake to do particular acts, or refrain from doing particular acts.
Undertakings last for up to 6 months, or up to 12 months in exceptional circumstances.
The child must agree to the undertaking. No conviction is recorded.
Around 4% of cases receive an undertaking in the Children’s Court (2023–24).
Non-Accountable and Accountable Undertakings
Two types of undertakings are available for children:
- non-accountable undertakings
- accountable undertakings.
For a non-accountable undertaking, the Children’s Court dismisses the charges. If the child breaches a non-accountable undertaking, the court cannot take any further action.
For an accountable undertaking, the child is accountable for any breach of the undertaking. If a child breaches an accountable undertaking, the Children’s Court can order the child to reappear before the court. The court may then:
- cancel the undertaking
- continue or vary the undertaking or
- revoke the order, dismiss the charge and impose a fine of not more than one penalty unit.
The information on this page (except all logos and any third-party content linked to from this page) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
