Section 5 Bail pending appeal.

Section 238 of the 1975 Act (admission of appellant to bail) shall be amended as follows.

In subsection (1), at the beginning there shall be inserted “ Subject to subsection (1A) below, ”.

After subsection (1) there shall be inserted the following subsection—

“(1A)

The High Court shall not admit a convicted person to bail under subsection (1) above unless—

(a)

where he is the appellant and has not lodged a note of appeal in accordance with section 233(1)(a) of this Act, the application for bail states reasons why it should be granted and sets out the proposed grounds of appeal; or

(b)

where the Lord Advocate is the appellant, the application for bail states reasons why it should be granted;

and, in either case, the High Court considers there to be exceptional circumstances justifying admitting the convicted person to bail.”.