Bail laws must be tightened to make Hove & Portslade’s streets safer

Mike Weatherley, Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hove & Portslade has added his voice to calls to tighten the bail laws and ensure public safety is put first.  The latest figures show that almost half of all those who breach bail are let off with a fine, the average amount being just £60 – less than a typical town hall fine for a householder who puts out their rubbish on the wrong day.

Conservatives are demanding that tighter bail laws are needed, and have announced proposals to reform two crucial areas of bail law: decisions to bail defendants and enforcing conditions when a suspect is bailed.  

• Public safety will be made an explicit consideration in all bail decisions
• Bail will be denied for those previously convicted of the most serious offences
• A new offence of breach of bail, punishable with imprisonment, will be introduced to tighten up the enforcement of bail condition
• Persistent offenders and those who have previously breached bail will lose the presumption of bail

Mike said:  

“The current system is not working. Bail is too easily granted, frequently breached and weakly enforced.  Public confidence is undermined when bail conditions are routinely breached, and offenders now hold the criminal justice system in contempt. New victims of crime are created unnecessarily. This isn’t scaremongering as the facts prove.  Data from police forces in England, Scotland and Wales has shown that in one out of every six murders last year the alleged perpetrator was on bail facing separate charges at the time of the offence. In 2006, almost 65,000 violent crime suspects were freed on bail, amounting to four out of every five violent crime suspects arrested by the police (Hansard, 2 June 2008, col 636W). Only Conservatives will take effective action to protect the public.”

22 August 2008

Mike Weatherley

Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hove & Portslade

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