Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Marlene Malahoo Forte, says work is far advanced on the third draft of the Bail Act.
In June, Minister Malahoo Forte announced that a new Bail Act is coming, pending the revision of wording to some clauses.
Speaking in an interview with JIS News on Thursday (July 7), the Minister said the current review process is focused on fine-tuning the law, with the aim of tabling it in September.
She noted that the existing legislation provides a good foundation on which to do the revision.
“The process aims to make it one of the best and most balanced pieces of legislation on a matter that people are very anxious about. We are coming up on the summer recess and it is looking like it’s going to be a September timeline,” she said.
The minister told JIS News that the revised law will set out the entitlement to bail.
“It will look at the power to grant bail, the reasonable conditions on which bail will be granted, what amounts to sufficient cause for keeping someone in custody, and it will provide a good menu of the things to be considered by the court,” she said.
The law is also expected to clarify the processes for review and appeal as well as to look at timelines within which actions are to be taken.
“We are also moving to put prescribed forms in place to ensure that all matters that have to be communicated will be communicated in a standard prescribed form,”Malahoo-Forte said.
She noted, further, that “there are new features to the law, in addition to localising it and taking into account the matters that we have been documenting and collecting data on within the Jamaican context.
The law really honours the principles that the courts have been given much guidance on and looks at what it is that bail is intended to do in a balanced way”.
Malahoo Forte said she is looking forward to the completion of the process.
“If I must say so myself, I am quite excited, because great care is required in preparing law. The policy behind the law must be very clear and what is drafted in the law must be equally clear to capture the policy intent in the legislation,” she noted.
– JIS News
