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Produced by the Sentencing Academy

Failure to Surrender to Bail

Snapshot 9

Bringing together relevant information, research findings and statistics relating to sentencing.

by Annalena Wolcke

Published: 4 Aug 2025
Last updated: Aug 2025

Overview

  • Sentencing Council guideline range: discharge to a 26-weeks prison sentence
  • Maximum sentence in Magistrates’ Court: 3-months’ imprisonment
  • Maximum sentence in Crown Court: 12-months’ imprisonment
  • Convictions fell significantly between 2015 to 2020 (from over 7,700 to less than 2,400), but increased again slightly in recent years (to over 3,000 in 2024).
  • This snapshot summarises key trends over the past 5 years

Sentences Imposed

Figure 1: Sentences for Failure to Surrender to Bail, 2020-2024

  • Over 32% of convictions resulted in a fine.1
  • A further 22% resulted in a community order.2

Figure 2: Sentences Imposed for Failure to Surrender to Bail, 2020-2024

  • Trends in the use of principal sanctions for failure to surrender to bail have been relatively stable over the last 5 years.

Immediate Prison Sentence Lengths

Figure 3: Prison Sentence Lengths, Failure to Surrender to Bail, 2020–2024

  • The most frequent sentence range is up to 1 month, accounting for 85% of all immediate custodial sentences.
  • Approximately 25% of prison sentences are over 1 month.

Sentencing Outcomes by Sex

Figure 4: Sentencing Outcomes by Sex, Failure to Surrender to Bail, 2020-2024

  • Female (n=1,917); Male (n=10,573)
  • Between 2020-2024, the custody rate for failure to surrender to bail was higher for men (19%) than for women (14%).

These rates do not account for various factors that influence sentencing decisions, such as the offender’s criminal history and the seriousness of the specific offence. Additional research would be needed to determine whether gender affected the sentence imposed.

This Snapshot is one of a series on sentencing trends in England & Wales. Others can be found here. For further information, contact Annalena Wolcke at a.wolcke@sentencingacademy.org.uk

  1. Data source for all figures: Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly December 2024, published 15th of May 2025. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2024 ↩︎
  2. ‘Other sanctions’ include: absolute discharge, and the category ‘otherwise dealt with’ ↩︎