About your Order

The court has sentenced you to do a Community Order. This might be:

• to punish you
• to reduce crime
• to change the way you behave and help you stay away from crime
• to protect the public
• to make you pay back something tothe community or to the victims of your crime.

Your Community Order is made up of one or more 'Requirements'. The court has chosen a Requirement or Requirements (there are 12) based on the seriousness of your crime and your personal circumstances.

You will be given a leaflet about each of the Requirements in your Community Order. A copy of each leaflet is also available on the next page, under 'The 12 Requirements'.

About your Supervising Officer

You will have one person who you must keep in contact with while you are on your Community Order.

This person is called your Supervising Officer. Thety may be an officer of the probation service, or the officer in charge of an attendance centre, or an electronic monitoring officer (if the court has said you must be tagged).

You might be told to keep in contact with other people too. If you do not do so, you may be taken back to court.

The court expects your supervising officer to make sure that you stick to the rules of your Requirements and complete your sentence successfully.

If you do not do this, the court expects your supervising officer to do something about it.

What you should do

While you are on your Community Order you must:

• Listen carefully to what your supervising officer says and do what they ask you to do;
  
  
• Do what you are told to do for each of the Requirements you are given (different leaflets will tell you what this means);
  
  
• Turn up for appointments to do with your sentence and be on time;
  
  
• Make sure you turn up in a fit state to take part;
  
  
• Show respect to probation staff and to other people you meet during your sentence;
  
  
• Tell your supervising officer straight away if you plan to change your address or phone number;
  
  
• Tell your supervising officer straight away if you are unable to keep your appointment;
  
  
• Tell your supervising officer if you are having any other problems with completing your sentence;
  
  
• Carry out other instructions you may be given as part of your sentence; and
  
  
• Stay out of trouble.

What if you break the rules?

If you miss an appointment or break the rules of any of the Requirements you are given, your supervising officer will ask you to explain why. If there is a good reason for not being able to keep an appointment you should provide your supervising officer with evidence.

This might be a doctor's note or a letter from your employer, for example.

If your reason is not acceptable, the supervising officer must take action.

The first time anyone on a Community Order breaks the rules of any Requirement, they might receive a final warning – or if their behaviour is particularly serious, they might be sent back to court.

If anyone breaks the rules for a second time within 12 months without a good reason, they must be taken back to court.

It is very important that you attend your appointments and work hard to complete your sentence.

What happens if you get sent back to court?

If you are taken back to court for breaking the rules of your sentence, the court must take action. Depending on your situation, the court might decide to:

1. Make you do more Requirements;
2. Make you do different Requirements;
3. Make the Requirement or Requirements you are already doing harder; or
4. Send you to prison.

The court cannot just give you a warning or a fine.

If you do not want to risk going to prison it is very important that you follow the rules of your Community Order and the Requirements that you are given to do.