Delays in starting community payback order work placements: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/18/00344
Date received: 6 February 2018
Date responded: 6 March 2018

Information requested

A breakdown of the time delay between the imposition and start of community payback order work placements for the year 2016-17 and also the longest single delay in starting a work placement.

Response

The information is shown in the table below:

Time between imposition of order and start of work placement (number of orders):
Over 2 months – 3 months	316
Over 3 months – 4 months	246
Over 4 months – 5 months	139
Over 5 months – 6 months	90
Over 6 months – 7 months	64
Over 7 months – 8 months	29
Over 8 months – 9 months	22
Over 9 months – 10 months	9
Over 10 months – 11 months	9
Over 11 months – 12 months	5
Over 12 months	6
Longest length between order imposition and start of placement (days)	475

Overall, there were 19,100 Community Payback Orders imposed in the year 2016-17, with 76% of those having an unpaid work requirement. We know that 93% of those with an unpaid work requirement started within two months of being imposed, while the most common reason for the longer delays (those beyond nine months) was because the individual was already serving another community sentence.

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