Community service orders

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Community service orders require offenders to work in the community without pay for a certain number of hours. They give offenders the chance to provide a useful service back to the community. The order stays in force until the offender has finished all the work they have to do.

The court can order offenders to work for between 80 and 300 hours and this will normally be completed within a year.

Before offenders start their work placement, they must attend a meeting to decide what is the most appropriate form of community service. They must also attend a health and safety group and have a one-to-one meeting with a supervising officer. The kind of community work they might have to do includes:

• painting and decorating
• gardening
• improving the environment and landscaping, and
• joinery.

They might also get an individual placement somewhere such as:

• a charity shop
• a day care centre for elderly and disabled people, or
• another charity or voluntary group.

All community service orders are enforced rigorously. If the terms and conditions of the order are broken, the order will be taken back to court where the court can:

• let the offender continue with the order
• let them finish the order and give them a fine, or
• cancel the order and sentence them for their original offence.

For more information on community service orders, please contact us by:

email: sw@renfrewshire.gov.uk
phone: 0141 840 1001
write to us at:
Community Service Unit
62A Espedair Street
Paisley
PA2 6RW

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