[Acrylic-bob]

Which is all very well, I am very much in favour of offenders being required to assume a debt to society which must be repaid in some way and a period of unpaid work seems, on the face of it, a productive way of doing this. But I think that we need to look at just how much the administration of such schemes actually cost and whether the returns of such investment justify the outlay. It strikes me that this is merely a cosmetic exercise which in no way reflects the true cost of bringing an offender to court and administrating and supervising any sentence. Would it not be more appropriate to say to an offender "Your offence has cost the community X number of pounds, thus you will work at Y occupation for sufficient hours until this is repaid in full." over and above any sentence which may be imposed for breaking the law in the first place.