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Police and Justice Bill

The purpose of new clause 6 is to render crystal clear the provisions in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984—PACE—pertaining to detention and bail. When a custody officer refers a case to the relevant Crown Prosecution Service lawyer, the options available to prosecutors under section 37 of the Act require the person to be either released on bail pending charge, released without charge and on bail but not for that purpose, released without charge and without bail, or charged. A sensible reading of PACE would allow detention for a relatively short and reasonable time for a quick decision from the CPS, but PACE does not contain an explicit provision for a person to be detained while a charging decision is made. In order to avoid any confusion on the issue, new clause 6 and consequential amendment No. 81 make specific provision to allow a custody officer to detain in order to await the decision of the prosecutor. Guidance will make it clear that such a power should be exercised only when a decision is expected from the prosecutor within a maximum of no more than three hours; that the custody officer must ensure that this period is not used simply as a means to keep a person in police detention; and that the custody officer must first consider the suitability and appropriateness of the person to be granted bail from police custody. The decision remains a matter for the custody officer. Amendment No. 43 makes a minor technical change to clause 35. As the clause is drafted, only offenders sentenced to custody following conviction for offences under the Bail Act 1976 in the magistrates court could be awarded extra days for disciplinary offences. This provision will maintain the status quo for this group of offenders. I shall now turn to the amendments in this group that were tabled by the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Lynne Featherstone), whom I am delighted to see in her place. I shall start with amendments Nos. 32 to 37. One of the key measures in the Bill is the extension of conditional cautions. They have been trialled in a number of areas, and they have been very successful in dealing with low-level offenders who admit their offence. However, under the existing scheme, conditions may be applied only in cases either where there is a clear injured party who has suffered measurable loss or where the offending behaviour is attributable to a personal problem, such as alcohol dependency. We want to extend this scheme.