Policy paper

Community sentences: Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 factsheet

Updated 20 August 2022

In the recent White Paper ‘A Smarter Approach to Sentencing’, the Government outlined its commitment to achieving sustained rehabilitation for those caught in the revolving door of crime. We welcome its commitment to invest in capital and trust in the probation service and its staff, its embrace of new technologies, and clear determination to see community disposals win back the confidence of the courts and the public.

The Centre for Social Justice

1. What are we going to do?

1.1 Increased flexibility of Electronic Monitoring for community sentences

Increase the daily maximum curfew hours, whilst maintaining the weekly maximum, and increase the maximum curfew length to two years, so that sentencers will have more flexibility when imposing a curfew. It will also allow probation to amend an offender’s curfew in certain circumstances, supporting rehabilitation and freeing up valuable court time.

1.2 Unpaid Work Statutory Duty

Create a requirement for probation officials to consult key local and regional stakeholders on the delivery of Unpaid Work.

1.3 Abolish Senior Attendance Centres (SACs)

Remove SAC requirements from the menu of sentencing options.

1.4 Strengthen Responsible Officer Supervision Powers

Clarify the extent of supervision powers available to Responsible Officers.

2. How are we going to do it?

Increased flexibility of Electronic Monitoring on community sentences: We will increase the maximum curfew permitted to 20 hours per day (the current maximum is 16 hours), within the existing maximum weekly total of 112 curfew hours. The court could impose the maximum of 20 hours on specified days, increasing the ‘interference factor’ of a curfew as a protective and punitive measure, while enabling an offender to attend work or education on other days. We will also increase the maximum length of curfew to two years, bringing it in line with the maximum period that exclusion zones can be imposed for.

We will also give probation powers to amend curfew arrangements, limited to changing the curfew address and shifting the curfew start and end times without adjusting total hours imposed. For example, moving the curfew period from 7am-7pm to 6am-6pm to enable the offender to attend work. By making this change we will better support offenders to work and make changes in their life without breaching their curfew. It will also free up valuable court time as currently such changes can only be made by the court.

2.1 Unpaid Work Statutory Duty

We will create a new statutory duty in legislation, requiring probation officials to consult key local and regional stakeholders, ensuring that community orders and their requirements benefit the local community in which they are served.

2.2 Abolish Senior Attendance Centres

We will be amending the sentencing code so that the senior attendance centre requirement is no longer available to sentencers, unless the offender was convicted of the offence before the date on which the amendment came into force.

2.3 Strengthen Responsible Officer Supervision Powers

We will amend legislation to clarify that Responsible Officers have the power to compel offenders to attend supervision appointments at any point in the order (in exceptional circumstances). In order to achieve this, we are strengthening the existing “keep in touch” duty.

3. Background

3.1 Increased flexibility of Electronic Monitoring on community sentences:

In the Sentencing White Paper the Government set out its ambition to make community sentences more robust and to use electronic monitoring in a more flexible and creative way. The changes that we are making to how curfew can be imposed and managed support this ambition, along with new electronic monitoring initiatives already underway, such as new Alcohol Abstinence monitoring, and developing a new requirement to tag neighbourhood criminals when released on licence.

3.2 Unpaid Work Statutory Duty

Reforms to the probation system which are bringing Unpaid Work (UPW) delivery under the remit of the National Probation Service (NPS) present a significant opportunity to ensure that the work offenders do helps to rehabilitate as well as punish.

We believe that improving the quality of UPW placements, by better understanding community needs, has an important part to play in the rehabilitative process, helping to reduce the risk of reoffending.

By requiring probation officials to consider local needs we hope to ensure strong community participation in UPW, both from key agencies and members of the public.

3.3 Abolish Senior Attendance Centres

Currently, SACs are rarely used and we believe that their removal will promote simpler and more consistent sentencing, with the needs of young adult offenders better met by other available requirements.

3.4 Strengthen Responsible Officer Supervision Powers

Current legislation lacks clarity around the extent of a Responsible Officer’s (RO’s) power to instruct an offender, who is subject to a community order or suspended sentence order, to attend supervision appointments. This has caused confusion.

This may be problematic where additional appointments are required to address non-compliance with a requirement of the court, or where possible public protection concerns have arisen, including post requirement completion.

This measure is therefore needed to clarify the duty for offenders to keep in touch with their RO, as well as the RO’s power to compel offenders to attend further appointments under exceptional circumstances.

4. Frequently Asked Questions

4.1 Why are you making these changes to curfew?

We are making changes to curfews so that they can be imposed more flexibly and creatively, to better reflect the punishment intended and so that offenders can be managed more responsively, increasing support for rehabilitation.

4.2 Who do the curfew changes apply to?

These changes will apply to offenders serving community orders and suspended sentence orders where an electronically-monitored curfew has been imposed as a requirement of the sentence

4.3 How will the proposals for Unpaid Work (UPW) benefit local communities?

It is vital that UPW benefits the local community in which it is served and a key aspect of this is orders being responsive to local need.

Whilst nominated local projects are already popular with sentencers and the public, our measure will further strengthen the benefits for local communities.

Alongside the statutory duty, liaison arrangements with the Police and Crime Commissioner, Community Safety Partnerships and other community forums will ensure that all sections of the local community benefit from UPW.

4.4 How will the Government rehabilitate young adult offenders without SACs?

We believe that the needs of young adult offenders can be better addressed by other available requirements which promote rehabilitative outcomes.

This includes Unpaid Work and Rehabilitation Activity Requirements targeted at education, employment, relationships, lifestyle and more.

We will also be introducing evidence based structured interventions delivered directly by probation and a Dynamic Framework which probation practitioners can use to commission local services from a range of external organisations, including the voluntary and community sector.