Bail Breaches

Question

Can the Chief Constable confirm whether the PSNI record data around bail breaches?

Answer

Police will consider potential breaches in the four types of bail; pre-charge bail, post-charge bail, court bail and street bail.

If a breach of bail is reported or detected, PSNI will create an incident which will be recorded on Police systems (Control works and Niche) and will fall under the category ‘breach of order’.

Depending on the circumstances, a breach of post-charge and court bail will usually result in an arrest or, in the case of Court Bail, the suspect can be brought directly before the next available Court.

For a pre-charge bail breach, if the suspect is brought to custody, the breach will also be recorded on the custody record.

In the month of April 2025, 117 people were brought to custody in relation to a breach of bail. 112 of these were then brought before the court.

Once brought before the Court, the suspect may be remanded in custody, reminded of their bail conditions, or have additional or different conditions imposed.

Bail conditions will be flagged on Police systems, against the person to whom they relate. This means that if a person comes into contact with Police, their conditionswill be known to the Officer. The number of persons flagged for having bail conditions is also recorded on ‘Pulse,’ the Police Performance System.

This also allows for bail checks to be conducted.

Any breach of bail will be prioritised in line with threat, harm and risk. As with all breaches of bail, arrest attempts will be recorded against the original incident log.

Nuala McAllister - Alliance