Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 20
20
Accepted
Paragraph: 116
Increase judges' and magistrates' awareness and confidence in effective alternatives to custodial remand.
Recommendation
Custodial remand should only be used for those who are not suitable for alternatives, such as conditional bail or electronic monitoring. Greater engagement is needed between the Ministry of Justice and the Judiciary on the alternatives currently available to custodial remand. The Government should ensure that judges and magistrates are aware of the proven effectiveness of these alternatives in order to instil confidence and to increase their usage.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government accepted the recommendation and detailed specific actions taken, including court outreach, awareness briefings to over 2,000 people, and the production of a video, committing to continue expanding engagement with the judiciary on electronic monitoring.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
116
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted
We partially accept this recommendation. Decisions on whether to bail or remand a defendant are independent judicial decisions and so we can only partially accept this recommendation. The Government and the judiciary regularly discuss a wide range of topics. Recently, that has included engagement on electronic monitoring (EM), which can only be imposed on an individual as a condition of bail if they would otherwise be remanded in custody. EM is only used to monitor compliance with other relevant conditions of court bail, principally curfews and/or exclusion zones. As part of our court outreach programme of work (see the response to recommendation 20) we have started to highlight in particular the availability, flexibility, and usefulness of EM to monitor compliance with relevant conditions of bail. We are working with the Senior Presiding Judge to explore ways in which we can further engage with the judiciary.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗