Emergency law to overturn court ruling on police bail

Police minister says legislation needed to resolve doubts over 80,000 suspects affected by judgment Emergency legislation is to be introduced to overturn a court ruling that has severely restricted police powers to detain suspects for questioning and plunged police bail laws into chaos. The police minister, Nick Herbert, told MPs the new law was needed because the status of 80,000 suspects currently bailed by police forces across England and Wales had been placed in doubt. Earlier on Thursday the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, warned of serious consequences of the court ruling, adding that there were currently 175 murder suspects out on bail in London. Ministers and police chiefs are in urgent talks over interim measures to deal with the situation in the next fortnight or so before the emergency legislation restores the situation. They have concerns about whether they have enough police cells to detain suspects and worry that they may have to drop cases completely. “In some cases it will mean that suspects who would normally be released on bail are detained for longer. It is likely that in most forces, there will not be enough capacity to detain everybody in police cells,” admitted Herbert. “In other cases, it risks impeding the police to such an extent that the investigation will have to be stopped because the detention time has run out. The judgment will also affect the ability of the police to enforce bail conditions.” The ruling by a district judge in Salford, which was upheld by the high court, overturned 25 years of an interpretation of the law under which suspects could be released on police bail and recalled for questioning weeks and even months later as long as the total time in detention was no more than 96 hours. The ruling means that forces are only allowed to hold suspects for up to 96 hours continuously before they have to either charge or release them. Any time spent out on bail must now be counted towards the 96 hours. Herbert, who was answering an urgent Commons question from Labour on the police crisis, told MPs that the home secretary, Theresa May, was in Madrid at a meeting of the G6 interior ministers. He told MPs that police believed the ruling would have a serious impact on their ability to investigate crime and with 80,000 suspects on police bail around the country they could not wait for an appeal to be heard by the supreme court. “That is why the Association of Chief Police Officers [Acpo] has today advised the home secretary that new legislation is needed. We agree with that assessment. So I can tell the house that we will urgently bring forward emergency legislation to overturn the ruling,” he said. “That emergency legislation will clarify the position and provide assurance that the police can continue to operate on the basis on which they have been operating for many years. We are also seeking urgent further advice on how to mitigate the practical problems caused by the court’s decision in this interim period.” It will take at least eight days for parliament to pass the necessary legislation but Herbert said the ruling had to be reversed because it had upset a careful balance which had stood for a quarter of a century, and that it impeded the police’s work. The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, pledged opposition support but demanded to know why it had taken six weeks since the high court upheld the original ruling on 19 May for ministers to act. Herbert claimed the written judgment had not been available to Home Office lawyers until 17 June. When the scale of the problem “became clear” ministers were informed on 24 June: “If any suspect is released on bail, the judgment means they are, in effect, still in police detention. This means that time spent on bail should count towards any maximum period of precharge detention. It causes us great concern.” Police Liberal-Conservative coalition Alan Travis guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 30, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.