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Section 294: Review hearings: power to amend community requirements etc

Sentencing Act 2020 · 2020 c. 17View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 10: Custodial sentences — CHAPTER 5: Suspended sentences

This section applies where a review hearing is held on a review of a suspended sentence order by virtue of section 293 or 293A.

The court may, after considering the progress report, amend—

the community requirements of the suspended sentence order, or
any provision of the order which relates to those requirements.

But the court—

may not amend the community requirements of the order so as to impose a requirement of a different kind unless the offender expresses willingness to comply with that requirement,
may not amend—
a mental health treatment requirement,
a drug rehabilitation requirement, or
an alcohol treatment requirement,

unless the offender expresses willingness to comply with the requirement as amended,

may amend the supervision period only if the period as amended complies with section 288(4),
may not amend the operational period, and
except with the consent of the offender, may not amend the order while an appeal against the order is pending.

For the purposes of subsection (3)(a)—

a community requirement of a kind within any entry in the table in section 287 is of the same kind as any other community requirement within that entry, and
an electronic compliance monitoring requirement is a requirement of the same kind as any requirement within that table to which it relates.

If the court is of the opinion that the offender has without reasonable excuse breached a community requirement of the order, the court may adjourn the hearing so that it can deal with the case forthwith under paragraph 13 of Schedule 16 (powers of court to deal with offender on breach of requirement or subsequent conviction).

For some powers available where the court is of the opinion referred to in subsection (5) but does not deal with the case forthwith, see paragraph 9A of Schedule 16.

In this section—

  • “review hearing”, and

  • “progress report”,

have the meanings given by section 293(2) (or, as the case may be, section 293A(2).

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This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.