Community Sentences Position Statement and Recommendations

Detected March 31st, 2026

Summary

The Magistrates' Association published a position statement with 14 recommendations for improving community sentencing in England and Wales. The statement calls for increased funding for probation services, real-time data on programme availability, and clearer sentencing guidance. The Association warns that planned criminal justice reforms will fail without proper investment in community sentences.

View original document View source feed page

What changed

The Magistrates' Association issued a position statement containing 14 recommendations for criminal justice reform focused on community sentencing. Key recommendations include fully funding and rebuilding probation capacity to enable prompt commencement and effective monitoring of community orders; providing magistrates with accessible real-time data on programme availability, completion, and breach rates; ensuring community sentences include both punitive and rehabilitative elements; and clarifying judicial discretion over short custodial sentences through updated Sentencing Council guidance. The statement also calls for rapid evaluation of sentencing pilots and consistent national provision.

Magistrates and criminal justice stakeholders should review the position statement to understand the Association's concerns about 'patchy' availability and quality of community sentence orders. The Association reports that lack of trained probation staff means offenders sometimes wait months for unpaid work or treatment requirements to commence. Compliance teams in probation services and criminal justice agencies should monitor potential policy changes flowing from these recommendations, particularly regarding funding commitments and data transparency requirements.

Source document (simplified)

- No comments

The government’s planned criminal justice reforms will fail without proper investment in community sentences, the Magistrates' Association has said.

In a position statement, the organisation makes 14 recommendations for reform which it says will help restore confidence in community sentencing. The statement calls for a ‘renewed national focus on community sentencing’ built on credibility, transparency and local coherence.

While the association welcomed the government’s intention to strengthen community sentencing, it said it ‘remains concerned that its success will depend entirely on delivery, resourcing and clarity’.

The 14 recommendations include: to ‘fully’ fund and rebuild probation capacity, so that community orders can start promptly and be monitored effectively; accessible real-time data on programme availability, completion and breach rates for magistrates; ensuring community sentences include both punitive elements and rehabilitative support; and clarifying judicial discretion over short custodial sentences.

Other recommendations include ‘rapid’ evaluation of all new sentencing pilots and a guarantee of consistent national provision.

The Magistrates Association says planned criminal justice reforms will fail without proper investment

Source: Alamy

Punish more offenders in the community, Society tells Gauke review
Feature: Justice delayed The statement also includes ‘key asks’ of the Sentencing Act, including clarifying exceptions through updated Sentencing Council guidance; and providing magistrates with ‘detailed, standardised’ information on all probation and unpaid work requirements.

David Ford, national chair of the Magistrates' Association, said members had reported that the availability, quality and use of community sentence orders was ‘patchy’. He added: ‘Members also tell us that the lack of trained probation staff means that offenders sometimes wait for months for their unpaid work or treatment requirements to start.

‘Fewer community options means fewer choices for magistrates, leading to courts imposing fines when community options aren’t available – fines which in some cases are uncollectable because the offender has no income, creating debt without rehabilitation. In rare cases, the lack of a community option can lead to sentencers having no other option but to send someone to prison because there is no non-custodial alternative.

‘Our proposals, if implemented, will make community sentences work far better for communities, support offenders, and help restore public confidence. Reform won’t be cheap and won’t be complete by Christmas, but if the government wants its ambitious justice reform programme to succeed, it must invest more time, money and resources into transforming community sentencing for the better.’