Khan, R v

A community order must operate through one or more statutory requirements. It cannot continue as an empty order after its sole requirement has expired or been completed. Where the only requirement is unpaid work, the Criminal Justice Act 2003 requires that work to be performed within 12 months. The community order must therefore be limited to that period. A longer period of supervision requires an additional supervision requirement; it cannot be achieved by extending an unpaid-work-only order.

The appellant pleaded guilty in the Crown Court at Reading to offences concerning the production of cannabis for personal use. He received a two-year community order with a requirement to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.

He appealed only the two-year duration of the order. The unpaid-work requirement and the type and amount of sentence were not challenged. The sentencing judge had intended the longer order to preserve control, review or recall powers after the unpaid work had been completed.

The issue was whether a community order containing only an unpaid-work requirement, which had to be completed within 12 months, could nevertheless remain in force for two years.

1. The appeal was allowed. The two-year community order was outside the sentencing court’s jurisdiction. It was quashed and replaced by a community order requiring 100 hours of unpaid work within 12 months, running from 10 October 2014.

2. Under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, a community order is the statutory mechanism through which one or more requirements are performed. Its specified end date is the date by which those requirements must be completed. An unpaid-work requirement must be performed within 12 months, subject only to an irrelevant statutory power of extension. Accordingly, where unpaid work is the sole requirement, the community order is a 12-month order.

3. The court rejected the suggestion that the order could continue after the unpaid-work period merely to preserve control over the offender. Such an order would have no continuing requirement to enforce. R v Davison [2008] EWCA Crim 2795, concerning unpaid work combined with notification requirements under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, did not assist because it involved an additional requirement.

4. This conclusion did not create a sentencing gap. A court may add a supervision requirement lasting longer than the unpaid-work period. Where the custody threshold is crossed, it may instead suspend a custodial sentence and impose supervision.

5. Although not argued, the court noted the later amendment to section 177. Subject to exceptional circumstances, a community order must include a punitive requirement or be accompanied by a fine. In every case, the order must contain at least one statutory requirement; it cannot be an empty order.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)—By leave of the single judge, allowed the appeal against sentence and substituted the order: [2015] EWCA Crim 835.
• Crown Court at Reading—On 10 October 2014, imposed a two-year community order with 100 hours of unpaid work following guilty pleas on 27 August 2014.