Transparency data

Unpaid work management information - Summary

Published 5 November 2026

Applies to England and Wales

1. Introduction

Unpaid work, also known as community payback, is one of the options available to sentencers at court. The purpose of unpaid work is to provide punishment and reparation, with individuals carrying out work on projects which benefit their local communities.

A person can receive an unpaid work requirement when they receive one of the following types of court order:

• community order
• suspended sentence order
• youth rehabilitation order
• enforcement order
• supervision default order
• order made in other UK jurisdictions where the case has transferred

This release provides data on the delivery of unpaid work from 1 April 2022 to 30 June 2026. The comparison of periods takes into consideration the latest quarter of data (1 April 2026 to 30 June 2026) and the matching period of the previous year (1 April 2025 to 30 June 2025). By analysing the same quarter of both years, the key points and comparisons are not impacted by the seasonal nature of unpaid work delivery.

2. Individuals with unpaid work

Where a person has been sentenced to an order with a regular unpaid work requirement, the start date is usually the sentence date. Additional unpaid work requirements can be added to an order after it has started - for example, if the order is breached, the court may decide to add extra unpaid work hours. In these cases, the start date is the date the additional requirement was added.

There may be circumstances where a different sentence and start date apply; however, these scenarios are generally less common.

In the context of this release, a termination is recorded where a person, order or unpaid work requirement has ended, and there is no more active involvement.

• In the quarter to June 2026, 12,490 individuals were sentenced to unpaid work, a decrease of 2.8 percent from 12,850 in the same period in 2025.
• In the quarter to June 2026, there were 13,480 individuals with unpaid work terminating, representing an increase of 16.0 percent from 11,620 for the same period in 2025.
• In the quarter to June 2026, 10 of the 12 probation regions across England and Wales saw a decrease in the number of individuals sentenced to unpaid work when compared to the same period in 2025.

Figure 1: Individuals with unpaid work sentenced and individuals with unpaid work terminating, by region, 1 April 2026 to 30 June 2026

(Source: Unpaid work management information data tables; Table 2 and Table 6)

3. Hours of unpaid work

Individuals can be sentenced to undertake between 40 hours and 300 hours of unpaid work. Under the Sentencing Code, individuals on probation were required to complete their unpaid work within 12 months of sentencing, regardless of the length of the order. If the required hours were not completed within this timeframe, probation staff were required to apply to the court for an extension.

As of 11 May 2026, there is no longer a legal requirement for unpaid work hours to be completed within 12 months of sentencing, removing the need for probation staff to apply to the court for an extension where hours are not complete within the 12 months. This change brings unpaid work in line with other sentence requirements which do not have a fixed completion period, and will be applied retrospectively to all cases, including those already in progress.

• 1,626,790 hours of unpaid work were sentenced in the quarter to June 2026, a decrease of 2.3 percent from 1,664,320 hours in the same period in 2025.
• In the quarter to June 2026, 2,040,325 hours of unpaid work were offered, representing a 1.0 percent increase from 2,020,305 hours of unpaid work offered over the same period in the previous year.
• 1,152,150 hours of unpaid work were credited in the quarter to June 2026, a 1.0 percent increase from 1,140,910 hours of unpaid work credited in the same period in 2025.

Figure 2: Unpaid work hours sentenced, hours offered and hours credited, by region, 1 April 2026 to 30 June 2026

(Source: Unpaid work management information data tables; Table 5, Table 11 and Table 12)

4. Further insights

• 388,930 sessions of unpaid work were offered between 1 April 2026 and 30 June 2026 remaining broadly consistent with the 388,065 sessions offered between 1 April 2025 and 30 June 2025.
• 249,345 sessions of unpaid work were completed between 1 April 2026 and 30 June 2026 remaining broadly consistent with the 250,335 sessions completed over the same period in 2025.
• At 30 June 2026, there were a total of 37,025 individuals with active unpaid work, an increase of 4.6 percent from 35,410 at 30 June 2025. Caseload volumes have shown an overall downward trend since the start of the time series in 2022, with a temporary peak reflecting the backlog of cases accumulated following the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Of the 12 probation regions across England and Wales, 7 regions saw an increase in excess of 100 individuals with active unpaid work at 30 June 2026 compared to 30 June 2025.

Figure 3: Individuals with active unpaid work at end of quarter, England and Wales, 1 April 2022 to 30 June 2026

(Source: Unpaid work management information data tables; Table 13)

5. Further information

As well as this bulletin, the following products are published as part of this release:

• Unpaid work management information – Guidance
• Unpaid work management information – Data tables

6. Contact

Press enquiries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice press office:
Tel: 0300 790 0711
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/media-enquiries

Enquiries about this management information should be directed to:
E Stradling
HMPPS Performance Unit, Analysis Directorate
Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ
Email: crosscuttingperformanceenquiries@justice.gov.uk