Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of number of suspected offenders who were likely to be released early without the custody time limit extension.

Temporary legislation has been introduced to extend the length of the Custody Time Limit in the Crown Court by 56 days for 9 months. It does not apply retrospectively and defendants retain the right to apply for bail. The decision to release a defendant on bail is one taken by our independent Judiciary based on the specific circumstances of the case. There is therefore, no reliable statistic that answers this question.