The Government has developed a community sentence progression scheme to act as an incentive for offenders on community sentences to engage early with probation, their court-ordered requirements and their sentence plans.
	This scheme provides for termination of a community order or the supervision period of a suspended sentence order if an offender completes both their court-ordered requirements and all other objectives as set out in their sentence plan. This is intended to encourage early engagement and compliance with the order and to focus practitioner time and interventions on more serious and complex offenders.
	The Community Order (CO) was introduced by the Criminal Justice Act 2003. A CO is a non-custodial sentence served in the community and can include one or more specific requirements imposed by the court. Suspended sentences were first introduced by the Criminal Justice Act 1967 and later restructured into Suspended Sentence Orders (SSOs). An SSO is a custodial sentence, that is suspended for a specific period, on the basis that the offender does not commit further offences and complies with order conditions and requirements.
	Order requirements are conditions imposed by courts as part of a CO or SSO; for example, a requirement to carry out unpaid work. These are intended to provide punishment in the community, rehabilitation for the offender and/or ensuring that offenders engage with reparative activities and are tailored to the nature of the offence and offender’s circumstance. The Probation Service is responsible for the management and enforcement of COs and SSOs, and the delivery of these requirements.
	At the beginning of a sentence, and following Probation Service guidance, practitioners must prepare a Sentence Plan. This sets out how the sentence will be managed, including how sentence requirements will be completed and any other objectives necessary to deliver the sentence of the court. This can be updated during the sentence to reflect progress and other changes as necessary.
	Orders have a maximum length – three years for COs and currently two years for SSOs, although other measures in this Act extend this to three years. In current practice, a probation practitioner can submit an application to the court for early revocation of a CO or the supervision period of an SSO, if sufficient progress has been made towards sentence requirement(s) by the offender. This application can also be made independently by the offender.
	This process is infrequently used, with usage falling over the last decade, which is primarily due to court delays and an overly burdensome administrative process.
	This measure simplifies this process by aligning the length of a CO and the supervision period of an SSO to the time necessary to complete both the court-ordered requirements contained in the order and other objectives set out in the sentence plan. If these are not completed then the CO or the supervision period of the SSO will continue for the full length set by the court during sentencing.
	The scheme will operate as follows:
COs will terminate if an offender has i) completed all court-ordered requirements and ii) the practitioner considers that the offender has met the objectives set out in the plan and no further objectives are needed.
The supervision period of SSO will end if an offender has completed i) all court-ordered requirements and ii) the practitioner considers that the offender has met the objectives set out in the plan and no further objectives are needed. The SSO itself would not end but would continue for the full length set by the court at sentencing, with any further offending risking activation of the custodial sentence.
For both COs and SSO, if an offender does not meet both elements then the CO or supervision period of an SSO will not end.
There are no offence or risk-based exclusions from the scheme - it is available to all offenders sentenced to a CO or SSO. Orders subject to oversight from Intensive Supervision Courts are excluded from the scheme.
The scheme will not affect any other court-imposed orders, such as ancillary orders.
Policy background Part 2: Management of offenders after sentencing Community Order requirements and community requirements Termination of Community Order (CO) and Termination of Supervision Period of Suspended Sentence Order (SSO)