Women's Refuges

HC Deb 04 March 1994 vol 238 c11W

Ms Ruddock

To ask the Seccretary of State for the Home Department whether he will consider allowing women's refuges to be classified as places of fixed abode for bail purposes; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Maclean

Decisions as to whether or not bail should be granted are matters for the courts under the Bail Act 1976. Among the factors which the courts take into consideration in deciding whether the statutory right to bail is overtaken by any of the exceptions allowed for in that Act are the character, antecedents and community ties of the person seeking bail. But it must be for the court to decide, in the circumstances of the case before it, the relevance of residence at a particular type of accommodation when considering the defendant's community ties.