The court imposing a community order may take any time spent remanded in custody or on a qualifying curfew into account when determining any restrictions on liberty to be imposed by a community order. Qualifying curfew is a condition of bail which requires the person granted bail to remain at one or more specified places for a total of not less than 9 hours in any given day.
A community order may still be appropriate even where the period of time spent remanded in custody or on qualifying curfew is comparable to or exceeds the shortest term of custody commensurate with the seriousness of the offence(s).
Time spent remanded in custody or on a qualifying curfew may reduce a requirement imposed for the purpose of punishment or may amount to exceptional circumstances which would make it unjust to impose a requirement for the purposes of punishment.
Magistrates: Consult your legal adviser when considering how to take into account time spent remanded in custody or on qualifying curfew when imposing a community order.