asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the average cost to the taxpayer of (a) a community order, and (b) a suspended sentence order. [HL2540]

There are no separately costed figures for a community order and a suspended sentence order.

The community order and the suspended sentence order were introduced by the Criminal Justice Act 2003 for offences committed on or after 4 April 2005. For 2005-06 the average cost in the National Probation Service of a community sentence, which included for this purpose suspended sentence orders, was estimated as £2,400. As 2005-06 was a transitional year, with sentences running under both the pre-CJA 2003 regulations and the CJA 2003 regulations, this estimated cost should be treated with caution. The custodial cost arising from breach of a suspended sentence order is not included in the above cost.