About the Unpaid Work Requirement

• It is a Requirement which can be imposed  under a Community Order which is a sentence by the Court to be served by an offender in the community.
• It means an offender must do unpaid work which will  be of benefit  to the community. This used to be known as 'Community Service'.
• The Court states how many hours must be worked.A Court can order at least 40 hours and up to a maximum 300 hours. An offender must work at least 5 hours each week.
• Probation enforces the  Court Order and the Requirement. If an offender does not comply with their Order, we act to return him or her to the Court which decides what further action will be taken.
• We plan and arrange work for offenders to do. We try to make sure that there is a range of work availble to meet the abilities and skills of all offenders. We undertake assessments of the risk factors of each offender and of each workplace before an offender is placed to start  unpaid work.
• The aim of community punishment  Unpaid Work is to provide opportunity for offenders to make reparation to the community. The aim is to reduce re-offending. We arrange unpaid work placements which can enable offenders to learn work skills, so as to improve their employability and guide them away from crime.

In Lancashire last year we supervised about 1,500 offenders doing Unpaid Work under a Community Order. They worked a total 125,000 hours helping communities during the year.