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Baker's bail banditry

01 March 1992

Home Secretary Kenneth Baker's pre-election promise of laws to crack down on "bail bandits" is in contradiction to the views of Home Office research. In September 1991, Northumbria police issued a survey which claimed that 40% of reported crime was committed by people on bail. The study was greeted with widespread scepticism; an earlier study of the Metropolitan police area had found that only 16% of recorded crime was committed by defendants on bail. The National Association of Probation Officers pointed out that even those figures were likely to be unrealistic, since defendants on bail were more likely to be caught than unknown offenders, and that the real injustice was the remand in custody of many innocent people who were acquitted at trial, and others whose offences did not merit custody.

At the time, the Home Office Research Department shared the general scepticism on "bail bandits", and was "not convinced" of the survey's significance. But on 25 February, Baker told the Commons of plans to draft a new law which would require courts to consider offending on bail as an aggravating factor in sentencing, and to allow police to arrest and detain people immediately for breaches of bail.

Independent, 5.9.91, 19.2.92, 22.2.92; Guardian, 22 & 25.2.92.