THE government will rush in emergency legislation to countermand a controversial legal ruling on police bail that has sent shockwaves through Dorset’s law enforcement community.

Currently there are 720 persons suspected of being involved of a wide range of offences bailed to return to Dorset Police stations.

But serious question marks hang over the status of these suspects following a decision, now backed by judicial review, taken by a district judge in Manchester.

This judicial ruling means officers in Dorset, indeed across the nation, can no longer bail suspects for more than four days without either charging or releasing them.

It overturns 25 years of police practice – whereby only the time spent being questioned or in police custody counted towards the maximum 96-hour limit of pre-charge detention.

On Monday High Court Judge Mr Justice McCombe backed the initial ruling, which means time spent on police bail now counts towards the maximum limit.

However, in a bid to speedily rectify what Home Secretary Theresa May believes is an unworkable situation, the House of Commons will debate the bill on Thursday, before it goes to the House of Lords early next week.

And the message from Dorset Police is to answer your police bail or face possible re-arrest.

Superintendent Garrick Smith, director of criminal justice at Dorset Police, said: “We are currently reviewing all outstanding police bail cases and my advice to anyone who is currently on police bail is to answer it unless you hear otherwise.

“If you do not, you run the risk of being re-arrested at a time which is not convenient to you and you may spend longer in custody as a result.

“We are confident that the situation will be clarified within the next two weeks and in the meantime we have plans to deal with the consequences of this judgement and limit disruption to daily business.”