Offenders in Bradford have carried out thousands of hours of compulsory unpaid community service work this year, according to the Ministry of Justice.

Making the announcement today Justice Minister David Hanson said that nationally more than six million hours of unpaid labour had been carried out in England and Wales during 2007; with Yorkshire and Humber alone contributing 160,524 hours to local communities and voluntary groups.

In Bradford offenders have rejuvenated derelict areas, cleared church yards and removed graffiti among other activities.

During the week preceding Remembrance Sunday in November, teams of offenders in Bradford, Halifax, Dewsbury, Leeds and Huddersfield cleared and tidied war graves at various cemeteries across the region.

In a new project West Yorkshire Probation Service has entered into partnership with the charity the St Vincent de Paul Society. Offenders have begun unpaid work such as painting and decorating and catering for the Society.

Mr Hanson said: "Community punishments are hard work, restrict liberty, but crucially encourage rehabilitation and reduce re-offending. It is physical work for the offenders but also has tremendous benefits for the community.

"Last year there were 55,514 completions of unpaid work across England and Wales, providing millions of hours of free labour for communities.

"In 2006/7 the national Probation Service had its best performance year with the highest ever rates of enforcement, record numbers of offenders completing accredited programmes and unpaid work, and more offenders starting and completing drug rehabilitation than in any previous year."

Unpaid compulsory community work is part of the conditions of offenders serving community orders.

The orders can last for up to three years and offenders who fail to comply with the terms of an order are deemed to have breached and are returned to court.

Between July 2006 and June 2007 19,271 offenders breached their community orders out of a total of 141,700. In these cases either the offender failed to adhere to the order or was convicted of a further criminal offence.

It has been suggested that offenders who commence a community sentence had significantly reduced levels of re-offending as compared to those serving traditional custodial sentences.