Report and Recommendations - Scottish Government

to challenge any conditions before the sheriff. Breach of any condition of anundertaking to the procurator fiscal should be a criminal offence.5.3.17 In a significant proportion of cases, where the suspect has not been liberatedby the police, the procurator fiscal does not seek the accused’s remand incustody when the case calls in court. There are three general situations whenthis may occur: (1) where the procurator fiscal does not agree with the policerecommendation to oppose bail; (2) where circumstances have changed sincethe police decision to report in custody rather than release on an undertaking 7 ;and (3) where the police recommend, and the procurator fiscal agrees, that bailon special conditions (as distinct from the accused being ordained to appear orreleased on a police undertaking) is appropriate.5.3.18 One option is for the procurator fiscal to adopt an earlier role in deciding onthe liberty of the suspect in cases in which the police do intend to reporthim/her in custody. This would require the involvement of the procuratorfiscal before the formal reporting of the suspect by the police. Another optionis to give powers to the procurator fiscal to release accused persons on bail,including with special conditions, pending appearance at a future specifieddate. This would, in essence, be a power to release the accused on anundertaking. This would not achieve much if, by the time the procurator fiscalwere to consider the matter, the suspect was already in the cells at court. Theshort point is, however, that at each hierarchical stage of the criminal justiceprocess, the authority dealing with the suspect should have adequate powers to7 e.g. the finding of a suitable address (domicile of citation) for the suspect132