§ 36. Mr. Ancramasked the Solicitor-General for Scotland how many prosecutions have been taken against persons on bail under the Bail etc. (Scotland) Act in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement.
The Solicitor-General for ScotlandThese statistics are not readily made available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost and would, in any event, only give an indication of the number of persons who failed to attend at court. Previously, persons who breached a condition of bail that they should not re-offend while on bail have been charged with the substantive additional offence rather than with a contravention of the Bail etc. (Scotland) Act 1980. This situation should alter in the light of the further instruction, issued to procurators fiscal by my noble and learned Friend the Lord Advocate, to which I referred in my reply to my hon. Friend's question of 18 May.—[Vol. 24, c.64–65.]