Breaching Community Orders and Suspended Sentence Orders
As an Offender Manager (OM) or Responsible Officer (RO), understanding the basic mechanics of how to enforce Orders and Licences is critical for managing Service Users (SU).
A SU is commonly made subject to a Community Order (CO) and / or a Suspended Sentence Order (SSO) as a result of an offence.
A SU may breach these community based Orders in a number of ways, including (but not exclusively) as a result of:
Reoffending
Failing to attend appointments
Persistent failure to engage.
When a decision is made to breach a SU for any reason, it is important the OM or RO first checks if the Order was made at either:
Magistrates Court
or
Crown Court (where they have more powers than Magistrates).
This is because, unless stated on the actual Order itself, the breach should be listed for a hearing in the same Court.
Note: The NPS Enforcement Officer (EO) is responsible for presenting breaches for both the NPS and CRC SU’s in Court.
Breaching Community Orders and Suspended Sentence Orders
In this section of the chapter we will explain the basic steps the RO or OM should take to enforce either a CO or a SSO.
Step 1 – SU 1st missed appointment
-RO or OM sends a warning letter to SU within 2 working days
– The SU has 6 working days from the alleged breach date to provide evidence
– The RO or OM determines if the missed appointment is deemed acceptable or not
– If the SU misses a second appointment go to Step 2
If the breach is serious after 1 missed appointment, go to Step 3.
Step 2 – SU 2nd missed appointment
– RO or OM sends a warning letter to the SU within 2 working days
– The SU has 6 working days from the alleged breach date to provide evidence
– The RO or OM determines if the missed appointment is deemed acceptable or not
If the appointment is deemed unacceptable and the 1st unacceptable missed appointment is within 12 months of the most second, then go to Step 3.
Step 3) RO or OM makes a decision to breach or not
– RO or OM completes the required breach information to the required standard and sends it to the Enforcement Officer (EO) in the NPS by Day 8 (from the date of the alleged missed appointment).
– The EO in the NPS oversees the relevant next steps.
– The EO “accepts” or “rejects” the proposed breach action.
– The EO in the NPS sends out all relevant information to the offender and the Courts and presents the case in Court
– The EO notifies the CRC within 1 working day of the Court’s decision.
Breaching Licences – over 12 Month Cohort
For SU’s sentenced to 12 months’ custody or more, breach of a licence condition is dealt with administratively by the OM or RO and can result in a recall to custody.
The SU can breach a licence the same ways as they can a CO or SSO, however if the RO or OM wants to recall for failure to attend, the SU will need to have missed 3 appointments (not 2 as with a CO and SSO) unless their risk has escalated.
The recall can either be a ‘standard recall’ or a ‘Fixed Term Recall’.
- Standard recall can be to the end of the sentence
- A Fixed Term Recall is for 28 days.
A decision to recall is made administratively by NOMS’ recall staff.
Remember, that with a standard recall, a further report (Annex B) will need to be completed within 14 days as well as updated OASys.
For a FTR, it is only the one report that is needed to request the recall (Annex A).
In summary, the reports needed for recall are:
FTR = OASys Review + Annex A
SDR = OASys Review + Annex A + Annex B (within 14 days)
Breaching Licences for under 12 Month Cohort
For the new cohort, the licence conditions that can be imposed and the statutory breach process will be the same as for those offenders sentenced to over 12 months.
The fixed term recall period is, however, 14 days.
A decision to recall is made administratively by NOMS recall staff. The ORA (2014) Act does not specify whom in the public sector (i.e. acting for the Secretary of State) makes that decision or under what guidance.
Breaching Post Sentence Supervision (PSS) periods
Breaches for the PSS are heard at the Magistrates Court.
The Court decides whether a SU has unreasonably failed to comply with the requirements of supervision.
It is also important to point out that this decision is made using the information from the CRC (for CRC cases only) that is laid before the Court by the NPS Enforcement Officer.
The first decision for the Court is to decide whether there has been a breach or not.
It may find that the SU has actually complied with the requirements, or that the SU has a reasonable excuse for failing to comply.
If the Court finds there is no reasonable excuse for failing to comply with requirements there are a number of options. These options are explained next.
Breaching Post Sentence Supervision (PSS) periods
The Court can take no action (in contrast with Community Orders, where if the court finds there has been a breach it mustmake the order more onerous).
The Court can also take no action but recommend that the requirements be varied by the Secretary of State.
If the Court decides there has been a breach and a sanction is required it has 3 options.
These are:
- To impose a fine up to level 3 (£1,000)
- To commit an offender to prison for up to 14 days
- To impose a “Supervision Default Order (SDO)” which can be either: Unpaid work (20 – 60 hours) or an electronically monitored curfew (with a minimum of 20 days and no longer than the end date of the Post Sentence Supervision period).
Note: The Court itself cannot vary, amend or disapply the original supervision period or Requirements
What happens if an offender breaches an SDO?
A Supervision Default Order is applied when a breach has been proven on a Post Supervision Period. If the SU then breaches this, the only sanctions available are:
- Custody
- Fine
- Another SDO.
