Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of offenders have had a community order terminated early for failing to comply with requirements in each of the last five years.

Community orders consist of one or more requirements decided by the court. Where an offender fails to comply with any requirement of a community order, the court has wide powers: it can amend the order to make the requirements more onerous, impose a fine, or revoke the order and resentence the offender.

Sentencing in individual cases is entirely a matter for the independent courts taking into account the circumstances of the case.

Data showing the number of offenders who had a community order terminated early for failing to comply with their requirements in each of the last five years were provided in the answer to PQ 148214 this week. The corresponding proportions can be viewed in Table A4.22 of the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/981217/Probation_2020.ods.