Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations she has received on extending the proposed limit for initial bail periods contained in the Policing and Crime Bill; and if she will make a statement.

As part of the consultation process in 2014/15 and subsequently, we have received a number of representations from a wide range of organisations and individuals calling for both longer and shorter periods of bail than those proposed in Part 4 of the Policing and Crime Bill currently before Parliament.

The Government considers that the reforms set out in the Bill balance fairly the need for the police to be able to progress investigations with a minimum of administrative overhead while addressing the unfairness of keeping a person under investigation in ‘legal limbo’, as it cannot be right that they can spend months or even years on pre-charge bail with no judicial oversight, as happens at present.