Written question asked by Lord Marlesford (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Bach (Labour) on Friday, 5 February 2010.

Roads: Litter

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have considered using those sentenced by the courts to community service to pick litter.

Answer: Following the implementation of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, community service is now the unpaid work requirement of a community or suspended sentence order. The requirement is known as community payback. Community payback describes the work done by offenders to make reparation for their crimes. The work must benefit the community, and offenders sentenced to community payback undertake tasks such as picking litter and clearing graffiti. During recent weeks, there have been numerous examples of community payback being used at short notice to assist local authorities to clear snow from pavements. All members of the public have the opportunity to nominate projects to be completed by offenders undertaking community payback. Last year, over 62,000 offenders successfully completed community payback sentences and over 8.4 million hours were worked.

Secondary information