In September 2017 I wrote an article ‘Revolutionary Changes to Police Bail’ (see Janes Solicitors website News and Opinion section).
At the time I stated that although revolutionary, the changes brought about by the Policing and Crime Act 2017 had received scant media or public attention. This would appear to still be very much the case and there has been very little judicial oversight of the fundamental workings of the new bail scheme. There also appears to have been a dearth of academic interest in it. This is all surprising bearing in mind the impact of the new scheme on the thousands of people who have been suspected of offences but find themselves in limbo between their arrest or voluntary attendance at the police station (or other agency) and the often lengthy and protracted decision of whether the prosecution charge or decide to take no further action.