Bail

The Government ensures that policing has the powers, resources and guidance it needs to enforce bail conditions and keep people safe.

There is wide discretion in law for police to impose bail conditions on suspects to protect victims and witnesses, prevent offending and to prevent the suspect from failing to appear in court. Bail conditions must be necessary, reasonable, proportionate and enforceable, and should be subject to regular review as the perceived risk posed by the suspect may change over time.

Police have a range of powers under section 7 of the Bail Act 1976 to arrest a suspect in relation to suspected or anticipated breaches of bail conditions. This includes where there are reasonable grounds for believing the suspect is likely to break conditions, or where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting (a lower threshold) that conditions have been broken. Following arrest on these grounds, a suspect must be brought before a court within 24 hours, where a magistrate may remand them in custody or grant court bail.

The College of Policing produces its Authorised Professional Practice (APP) to provide authoritative guidance the police. APP advises that bail conditions should be accompanied by a police action plan to ensure effective enforcement. This is intended to ensure that victims can have improved confidence that the police will take action in the event of a breach, and that perpetrators understand that there are consequences to their actions. Action plans may include curfew checks at home addresses, proactive patrols to exclusion zones and scrutiny into whether conditions such as signing on bail at a police station are being maintained.

Policing is operationally independent of Government. Chief Constables and elected Police and Crime Commissioners are responsible for the operational management of their police officers and the enforcement of bail conditions.