Law Weblog

Smoking and bail

It is well reported that 2007 is going to be the year of no smoking, the age for buying tobacco will increase to 18 and smoking in some public places will be banned. Smoking on hospital premises (outside wards with open windows) will also be prohibited.

Other less well reported changes include changes to bail conditions, as from today – 1 January 2007 – the bail provisions in Sec 14 and 15 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 take effect. They are only for offences that carry a life sentence and are committed after today.

A defendant 18 and over may not be granted bail unless the court is satisfied that he will not commit an offence while on bail, if he committed the alleged offence whilst already on bail. Also, he will not get bail if he has failed to appear in court on a previous occasions.

But for those under 18 the rules are softer, so failing to appear becomes failing to appear and not doing so as soon as possible after. This only applies to bail from the court, not police bail.