Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christian Matheson on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many terrorism-offence related suspects on police bail are understood by her Department to have broken bail and left the UK since January 2013.

Mr John Hayes

Individuals suspected of terrorism-related offences can be arrested under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) or the Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT). The decision on which power of arrest to use is an operational judgement for police, and will depend on the circumstances of the case.

Individuals arrested under TACT cannot be released on police bail. By contrast, those suspected of terrorism-related offences arrested under PACE must be bailed once the grounds for detention no longer apply. Figures for the number of terrorism-related suspects on police bail that have been ordered to relinquish their passports, or have relinquished their passports, are not collected.

As the Secretary of State for the Home Department said in the House on 05 January 2016, figures for the number of people who have absconded whilst on police bail for terrorism offences are also not collected.

Figures for those who fail to surrender to bail are collected, but these figures are not separated into categories of offence. These figures are publically available and can be found as follows: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014