The court imposing a community order may take any time spent in custody on remand or on a qualifying curfew into account when determining any restrictions on liberty as part of the community order.
The court may make a community order where the offender has been remanded in custody (or subject to a qualifying curfew) for a period equal to, or in excess of, the time that they would have served commensurate with the seriousness of the offence. The rehabilitative, or any other purpose of sentencing, may still justify a community order, which takes the period of custody or curfew into account by reducing the punitive element. Time spent in custody or on a curfew may amount to exceptional circumstances which would make it unjust to impose a requirement for the purposes of punishment.