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As community service schemes were to be located in the milieu of volunteer activity, the
acceptability of offenders by voluntary agencies into such activities would be totally
incongruent without a declared willingness on the part of offenders in advance. The
legislation provided that before a Court can make a community service order it was
necessary for the court to request a report on the offender’s circumstances and must be
satisfied from such a report that the offender is a suitable person for such work and that
work is available for the offender to perform. To be eligible for community service an
offender had to be over seventeen years of age. The offender had to attend for
community service work when instructed and may not necessarily choose the times at
which the work is done although the Probation Service would likely structure the hours of
attendance so as to facilitate the most expedient performance of the order without
interferingwith the employment of the offender, or his educational or religious activities.
The penalty of community service was introduced into England and Wales on 1 st January,
1973 under the Criminal Justice Act 1972. This legislation was largely consolidated under
the Powers of Criminal Courts Act 1973 Sections 14-17 as amended bySchedule 12 of the
Criminal Law Amendment Act 1977. 16 The rapid implementation into law of the most
16 The Criminal Justice Act 1972 which introducedcommunityservice orders in EnglandandWales provides: Section 15
1) Where a person who has attained the age of seventeen is convicted of an offence punishable with imprisonment, the court by or before which he is
convicted may, instead of dealing with him in anyother way(but subject to subsection (2) of this section), make an order (in this Act referred to as “a
communityservice order”) requiring him to perform unpaid work in accordance with the subsequent provisions of this Act for such number of hours
(being in the aggregate not less than fortynor more than two hundredandforty) as maybe specifiedin the order.
2) Acourt shall not make a communityservice order in respect of anyoffender unless the offender consents andthe court –
Section 16 provides:
(a) has been notified bythe Secretaryof State that arrangements exist for persons who reside in the pettysessions area in which
(b)
the offender resides or will reside to performwork under such orders; and
is satisfied –
(i)
(ii)
after considering a report by a probation officer about the offender and his circumstances and, if the court thinks it
necessary, hearing a probation officer, that the offender is a suitable person to perform work under such an order;
and
that provision can be made under the arrangements for himto do so.
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