672.A person who is found guilty of certain criminal offences may be the subject of a community sentence* imposed by the court. Community sentences include probation orders, community service orders and combination orders.
673.If the terms of the sentence are not met, the Probation Service (or, in Scotland, the Procurator Fiscal) will refer the matter back to court. The court will decide whether the offender has breached the order, and, if so, what further penalty should be imposed for the breach, or if the order should be revoked and the offender re-sentenced for the original offence.
674.About 130,000 offenders are sentenced to probation orders, community service orders and combination orders each year in England and Wales, of whom currently about 30,000 are returned to court as a result of breach proceedings. In Scotland, in 1998, about 12,400 people were sentenced to community service orders or probation orders, and around 4,000 of these were subject to proceedings for breach.
Part III: Social Security Administration Loss of Benefit The current position