Bail Conditions Explained: What Happens After Charge

Once you have been charged with an offence, the custody officer must decide whether to release you on bail to attend court at a later date, or to keep you in custody until your first court appearance. This decision is separate from any bail you may have been on before charge, and the test the custody officer applies is different. They will consider the seriousness of the offence, the strength of the evidence, and whether there are grounds to believe you might fail to attend court, interfere with witnesses or evidence, or commit further offences if released.

Most people charged with offences that are not the most serious are released on bail to attend their first hearing at the magistrates’ court. If you are kept in custody, you must be brought before a court as soon as practicable, and in any event no later than the next available court sitting.

The custody officer has the power under section 47(1A) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to attach conditions to your bail where this is necessary to prevent the risks identified in your case. Common conditions include:

Residence — a requirement to live and sleep at a specified address.
Curfew — a requirement to remain at a specified address between set hours, sometimes monitored electronically.
Reporting — a requirement to report to a named police station at set times.
Non-contact — a prohibition on contacting a named witness, complainant, or co-defendant, whether directly or indirectly.
Exclusion — a prohibition on entering a specified address or area.
Surrender of travel documents — a requirement to hand over your passport to prevent travel abroad.

The conditions imposed should be necessary and proportionate to the specific risks in your case, not a routine or standard set applied to every defendant. In cases involving allegations between family members or partners, non-contact and exclusion conditions are common and can have a significant impact on living arrangements and contact with children — this is an area where early advice on the proportionality of conditions matters most.

If you believe a condition is unnecessary, disproportionate, or is having a serious impact on your life — for example preventing you from working, caring for a child, or attending a medical appointment — you do not have to simply accept it. There are two routes to seeking a change.

The first is to ask the police directly. Your solicitor can write to the officer in the case setting out exactly which condition should change and why, with supporting evidence such as an employment letter, proof of childcare responsibilities, or evidence of a medical appointment. The police can agree to vary the condition administratively without any court involvement.

The second is to apply to the magistrates’ court for the condition to be reconsidered. This is done in writing and the court should list the application promptly. The court will weigh the necessity of the condition against the impact it is having on you, and can vary, remove, or in some cases add conditions.

Breaching a bail condition — for example missing a curfew or contacting someone you have been told not to contact — is not in itself a separate criminal offence. However, the police have the power to arrest you if they believe you have breached a condition, and bring you back into custody. You may then be released again on the same or stricter conditions, or kept in custody until your case is next before the court.

A breach can also affect how any future bail application is viewed, even where you are not charged with any new offence as a result. Courts take a person’s bail history into account when deciding whether to grant bail again later in the same case.

This is different from failing to attend court altogether. Failing to surrender to custody is a specific criminal offence under section 6 of the Bail Act 1976, and is treated more seriously than breaching a condition such as a curfew.