Criminals sentenced to do community service will have to complete the work in intensive blocks under new rules.
The Ministry of Justice said courts would have the power to hand out tougher and more rigorous penalties for a range of offenders.
Those convicted of knife-related offences and sentenced to the maximum 300 hours of community service will have to complete the work in blocks of up to five days a week.
A pilot scheme is to be run in West Yorkshire to see if the intense work programme could be extended to all offenders given community service.
Justice minister David Hanson said: "Offenders sentenced to 'pay' for their crimes within the community can already expect to work hard and lose much of their free time.
"By introducing intensive five-days-a-week payback for many knife crime offenders we are further toughening these punishments.
"Initially the change will affect the small number of knife crime offenders who are given the longest community payback sentences instead of custody by magistrates, but we are also announcing a pilot to assess the suitability and success of extending this over time to a much wider range of offenders."
Last year 55,771 community payback sentences were completed across England and Wales.
