Website of the UK government

Offender projects

Find Community Payback projects in your area

• Community Payback Opens new window

The aim of Community Payback is to give the public a greater say in how criminals should pay back to the community.

During a three-week vote on Directgov the public were asked what community projects they would like to see offenders in 54 areas across the country carry out first from a list of five projects per area.

A total of 18,000 people voted for what projects they wanted to see carried out first and the winners have now been announced.

To find the winning projects in your area, and to suggest new ones, follow the Community Payback link below.

• Community Payback Opens new window

Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw said: "The public response to this campaign clearly shows that the public – the taxpayer - wants to have a say in Community Payback and want to see that Justice is being done in their community.

"As I have said it is crucial that the public should have a say in the community punishments offenders receive and that they have a right to know what offenders are doing in their neighbourhood to repay for the wrongs committed."

Every year over 55,000 criminals receive Community Payback – carrying out over six million hours of physical work on behalf of their communities to payback for their crimes.

Further information

• Community sentences - an overview