The 1976 Bail Act
Reflecting the fundamental principle that an individual is considered innocent until proven guilty, the Bail Act 1976 asserts a presumption in favour of bail for all people awaiting trial except those on charges of murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, rape or attempted rape. The legislation presumes that an individual will be remanded on bail unless there are strong reasons to hold them into custody. These include:

• They have been accused of carrying out a particularly serious offence
• They have previous convictions for similar offences
• There are reasons to believe that they could disappear before their trial
• There are reasons to believe that they may interfere with witnesses
• They is a belief they are likely to commit further offences before their trial
• The use of custodial remand can also reflect the failure to abide by the terms of previous community sentences.

Justice for All 2002
In July 2002 the government published proposals for wide ranging reforms to the criminal justice system. The report, ‘Justice for All’ included plans to reform the legal powers to bail suspects.

The government was particularly concerned about people carrying out further offences whilst on bail. It was also determined to deal with so called ‘bail bandits’. These are people who fail to appear at court for bail hearings.

Justice for All stated:

“Making sound bail decisions is a critical part of the criminal justice process. It is estimated that nearly a quarter of all defendants commit at least one offence while on bail and for young offenders the figure is even higher. One survey found that males in prison for theft of a motor vehicle, who had previously been remanded on bail, claimed on average to committing one offence of stealing a motor vehicle every month whilst on bail. Another problem is that some offenders who are bailed to appear at court fail to do so – 12% in 2000 and this is a major cause of trials breaking down.

In order to rectify these problems: there need to be the necessary legal powers to bail suspects and the capacity to deliver custodial and other remand options effectively; the police and courts need to have up to date information on which to base their decisions; we need to encourage sound decision taking that takes full account of the risk of offending and absconding; and enforcement needs to be robust?

Criminal Justice Bill 2003
Following on from Justice for All the government unveiled a new criminal justice bill which is currently going through parliament. The new legislation reverses the presumption in favour of bail in certain cases.

It states a person may not be granted bail:

• Unless the court is satisfied that there is no significant risk of him/her carrying out a further imprisonable offence whilst on bail
• If he/she commits an imprisonable offence whilst on bail
• Unless the court is satisfied that there is no significant risk that he/she will not attend court for a bail hearing
• If he/she fails to attend court for a bail hearing

Reversing the presumption in favour of bail in this way is of great concern. Instead of requiring the courts to justify their use of prison, the onus falls on defendants to prove that they should not be remanded into custody.

Those with chaotic lives or previous convictions will find it virtually impossible to persuade the courts that they present no further risk and should be granted bail.