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Section 46A: Power of arrest for failure to answer to police bail.

Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 · 1984 c. 60View on legislation.gov.uk

Part IV: Detention

A constable may arrest without a warrant any person who, having been released on bail under this Part of this Act subject to a duty to attend at a police station, fails to attend at that police station at the time appointed for him to do so.

The reference in subsection (1) to a person who fails to attend at a police station at the time appointed for him to do so includes a reference to a person who—

attends at a police station to answer to bail granted subject to the duty mentioned in section 47(3)(b), but
leaves the police station at any time before the beginning of the proceedings referred to in sub-paragraph (i) of that provision.

The reference in subsection (1) to a person who fails to attend at a police station at the time appointed for the person to do so includes a reference to a person who—

attends at a police station to answer to bail granted subject to the duty mentioned in section 47(3)(b), but
refuses to be searched under section 54B.

A person who has been released on bail under this Part may be arrested without warrant by a constable if the constable has reasonable grounds for suspecting that the person has broken any of the conditions of bail.

A person who is arrested under this section shall be taken to the police station appointed as the place at which he is to surrender to custody as soon as practicable after the arrest.

For the purposes of—

section 30 above (subject to the obligation in subsection (2) above), and
section 31 above,

an arrest under this section shall be treated as an arrest for an offence.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.