Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of bails that have been extended beyond 28 days in each of the last 12 years.

The Home Office have published data on the number of pre-charge bails that concluded in each financial year, broken down by duration, as part of the Police Powers and Procedures publications since the year ending March 2018.

The Home Office began collecting and publishing data on the outcome of pre-charge bail records for the year ending March 2021. However, it is not possible to determine from this data whether a pre-charge bail expired due to the defendant not being charged within 28 days.

The pre-charge bail system was reformed through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 on 28 October 2022. As part of the Government’s consultation on pre-charge bail, timescales were extended to better reflect the operational policing realities. The initial bail period is now 3 months which can then be extended for more complex cases.