Ms Deirdre Malone:

The legal test and the basic rules already in place require judges to make these decisions every day. They look at three things - if there is a belief or a fear that the person will interfere with the witness, if there is a belief or a fear that the person will interfere with the course of justice, and if there is a risk of serious offending if the person is released on bail. That is the starting point. Judges are faced with that decision on a daily basis and have to weigh up all the information before them and make what is a very difficult decision. There is no doubt and I do not think we would ever suggest that there is no place at all for pre-trial detention. Clearly, it is a very important tool available to the criminal justice system in order to ensure that those who have been charged with a crime appear before the court, give evidence, are tried and, ultimately, there is an outcome. The public has an interest in that regard. What we have to remember is that within that two very important things happen. First, there is identification of a risk, although it will not exist in every case, and if there is a risk how it can be addressed most effectively and, second, if there is a way in which we can ensure that the person returns to court, does not reoffend and engages with whatever he or she is supposed to engage with but is kept out of the prison environment. The issue is if there is a way of doing that and, if so, we have a duty to consider it. That means also protecting the public because remanding large numbers of people to prison does not make the problem go away. What it does is fill our prisons with remand prisoners who are the most transient prisoners. I checked the numbers today and six of our 14 prisons are overcrowded.

If the use of remand is increased without considering the impact that will have within our prisons, because what happens in our prisons affects what happens in our communities, we have to look at it in a joined-up way. We would never advocate abolition of pre-trial detention but we do advocate asking ourselves if it is necessary, if it is proportionate, if there a risk and, if so, if it can be mitigated. If not, it may be that pre-trial detention is the answer. It is a difficult task that judges face every day. Simplistic solutions such as making it mandatory to remand in certain circumstances are not the way. We have gone beyond that kind of simplistic debate and I hope there is a more nuanced debate which looks at all the solutions to this problem, including bail supports services and supervised bail.