§ Mr. AllanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the proportion of persons granted bail who subsequently returned to court for breaching their bail conditions in the year 1998–99. [95550]
883W
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeInformation is not collected centrally on the number of persons granted bail who are returned to court for breaching bail conditions. Information is available on those granted bail who fail to appear for trial; the most recent figures are published in "Criminal statistics England and Wales 1997".
At magistrates courts in 1997, out of 549,900 bailed defendants, 64,600 (11 per cent.) failed to appear for trial; and 44,200 defendants (68 per cent. of those who failed to appear) were proceeded against for failing to surrender to bail.
At the Crown court in 1997, out of 72,000 bailed defendants, 5,400 (8 per cent.) failed to appear for trial. Bench warrants were issued against 4,000 defendants (74 per cent. of those failing to appear).
Research undertaken in 1996 to provide a detailed picture of the extent and nature of offending on bail, particularly in relation to police conditional bail, found that 9 per cent. of those given conditional bail by courts in parts of Northumbria and Greater Manchester were detected in breach.