Community Orders

(asked on 24th April 2019) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to introduce tougher community sentences.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 3rd May 2019

The sentencing framework already gives courts the flexibility to select community order requirements which are a robust alternative to custody, and are tailored to address the specific issues that contribute to reoffending. Community sentences, in certain circumstances, are more effective in reducing reoffending, and therefore keeping the public safe. We must ensure the public and judiciary have confidence in effective community orders, including those which address offenders’ behaviour, answer their mental health and substance misuse needs and provide reparation for the benefit of the wider community.

We are rolling out GPS enabled location monitoring in addition to the existing curfew monitoring technology, which will provide the courts with an additional option when imposing community sentences.

Some requirements aim to reduce reoffending by addressing the issues that contribute to the underlying causes of offending. We are working with the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and Public Health England, in addition to the relevant local authorities, on protocol to support the greater use of community sentences with treatment requirements in courts in five testbed sites across the UK. The Community Sentence Treatment Requirement protocol sets out what is expected from all relevant agencies to ensure improved access to treatment for offenders who need it

We are taking action to improve probation delivery and enforcement of community requirements. We recently consulted on a range of reforms to probation and we will set out detailed plans shortly. As part of those reforms we want to make sure that judges and magistrates get the right information on what probation services are available locally.

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