Recommendation 28

It is only on the basis of good quality data in respect of the use of custodial remand that there can be effective policy-making. More data needs to be collected and published on remanded defendants, particularly in relation to the reasons for refusing bail, the length of time people are spending on remand as well as demographic information, including vulnerabilities and protected characteristics amongst the remand population, to increase transparency and improve the information available to decision-makers. We recommend that the Ministry of Justice begins to collate, where it does not do so already, and publish data on the remanded population in a dedicated quarterly publication, as it does for the current Offender Management Statistics. We also welcome the current work being conducted by the Centre for Public Data on data gaps in the justice system. The issue of data is one that we routinely raise in our reports, and so we call on the Government to give urgent consideration to the Centre’s recommendations and conclusions when they are published later this year. (Paragraph 155) 48 The role of adult custodial remand in the criminal justice system