Remand means custody before the trial. GOV.UK's guidance for people charged with a crime puts it plainly: "If the court decides to put you on remand it means you'll go to prison until your trial begins" (GOV.UK, Charged with a crime, checked 14 September 2026). That is the rule in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland run separate systems.
Three things change for you at once. Contact moves onto the prison's terms: your relative can only ring people named on their own list of friends and family, and security checks that list when they arrive, so it may take a few days before the first call. Visits are more frequent than after a conviction — three 1-hour visits a week. And no one, including us, can tell you how long the wait for trial will be in a particular case.
If you need to speak to someone today, the Prisoners' Families Helpline is free on 0808 808 2003.
What does it mean to be remanded in custody?
It means the court has decided your relative will not be at home while the case continues. They go to prison, and they stay there until the trial begins, unless bail is granted later.
The word that matters here is until. Remand is not a sentence. Nothing has been decided about the charge. The person is held while the case moves through the courts, and on visits the prison treats them more generously than someone who has been convicted.
For you, the practical effect is that a person who was reachable on a mobile yesterday is now reachable only in ways the prison controls: calls to names on their approved list, paid for out of their own limited credit, and a visits booking system you have to learn from scratch.
There are outer limits on how long remand can last before trial, called custody time limits, and they are covered further down. They are limits on the court, not a prediction about any individual case.
Why might a court decide to remand someone instead of granting bail?
The court is weighing up risk, not guilt. GOV.UK lists four reasons a person may be put on remand: that they have been convicted of a crime in the past; that the court thinks they might not attend their court hearing; that the court thinks they might commit a crime while on bail; or that they have been given bail before and not stuck to the terms (GOV.UK, Charged with a crime, checked 14 September 2026).
Families often read that list looking for the one that applied. A solicitor is the only person who can tell you what weighed in a particular hearing, and bail can be applied for again as a case develops. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and no article can tell you what will happen in your case.
Can someone on remand make phone calls?
Yes, but not to anyone they like, and not immediately. GOV.UK is specific: "They can only call people named on their list of friends and family. This list is checked by security when they first arrive so it may take a few days before they're able to call" (GOV.UK, Staying in touch with someone in prison, checked 14 September 2026).
So the silence in the first days is usually the security check, not a decision about you. The person inside submits the numbers they want; the prison checks them; calls start after that.
They also pay for every call themselves, from limited credit, and calls to a mobile cost more than calls to a landline. That is the gap our service works in. You subscribe to a real 01 or 02 landline number, regulated by Ofcom, which forwards to your UK mainland mobile. Your relative puts that number through the prison's normal process, like any other number, and if it is accepted the call is charged at the landline rate instead of the mobile rate. The same credit stretches to roughly twice as many minutes.
Two things must be said plainly. The prison decides, and it can refuse a number — we cannot promise approval, and nobody honestly can. And calls are still recorded and monitored exactly as before. What changes is the rate, nothing else.
If the mechanism is the part you want to see before you decide anything, the explanation is short.
How many visits is a family allowed while someone is on remand?
More than after a conviction. GOV.UK states: "A convicted prisoner is usually allowed at least two 1-hour visits every 4 weeks. A prisoner on remand (waiting for their trial) is allowed three 1-hour visits a week" (GOV.UK, Staying in touch with someone in prison, checked 14 September 2026).
Here is how the two positions compare on the points families ask about first.
| On remand, awaiting trial | After conviction | |
|---|---|---|
| Visit allowance | Three 1-hour visits a week | Usually at least two 1-hour visits every 4 weeks |
| Who they can ring | Only people named on their list of friends and family | Only people named on their list of friends and family |
| Where the exact rules live | The prison's own information page | The prison's own information page |
That last row does real work. GOV.UK says: "You can find out more about the exact rules on visits on the prison information page of the prison you're visiting" (checked 14 September 2026). Booking windows, ID requirements, what you can take in and how children are handled are set establishment by establishment, so check the page for the specific prison before you travel. Our guide to how prison visits work covers the booking side in more detail.
Does remand work the same in Scotland and Northern Ireland?
No. The guidance above applies to England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own systems, their own guidance and their own prison service arrangements, and GOV.UK directs readers in those nations elsewhere. If your relative is held in Scotland or Northern Ireland, treat the visit allowances and phone rules on this page as England and Wales only and confirm locally.
Call costs differ by jurisdiction too, because the prison telephone contracts are not the same.
Families who have already cancelled one diversion service usually want the arithmetic before the pitch, in minutes rather than promises.
What can the family do in the first week?
Start with location. You cannot book a visit or send anything until you know where they are, and our guide on how to find out which prison someone is in walks through that step. Once you have the establishment, its prison information page gives you the visits process and the local rules.
Second, wait for the list. Your number reaches them only once they have submitted it and security has checked it. GOV.UK is clear that the check happens on arrival and that it may take a few days, so a quiet first week is normal rather than a sign that something has gone wrong. Nothing you do from the outside speeds that up. What you can do is make sure the number you want them to use is the one you will actually answer, day or night, because changing it later means going through the prison's process again.
Third, get support for yourself. The Prisoners' Families Helpline, run by Pact, is free on 0808 808 2003. Pact itself can be reached on 020 7735 9535. Both are there for the person outside, which is the part most families skip.
Our walkthrough of the first few days sets out the same sequence in more detail.
Fourth, look at what calls will cost. Remand can run for weeks, within the limits set out below, and the credit on their account is finite. If you are weighing up whether a diverted landline number is worth it for a wait of unknown length, the plans are set out on one page.
Frequently asked questions
How long can someone be held on remand before trial?
There are custody time limits. The Crown Prosecution Service's legal guidance states that for summary only offences "the time limit is 56 days, unless extended by a court", and that for either-way offences the limit "becomes 182 days" once the court allocates a case for Crown Court trial, "less any time the defendant has spent in custody of the magistrates' court prior to sending" (CPS, Custody Time Limits, checked 14 September 2026). Only a solicitor can apply that to a real case.
Is remand different for someone under 18?
The published limits are framed separately. GOV.UK says that unless there are exceptional circumstances a person under 18 cannot be kept in custody for longer than 56 days if the case was heard in a youth court or a magistrates' court, or 182 days if it was heard in a Crown Court (GOV.UK, Charged with a crime, checked 14 September 2026). Youth establishments also run their own visit and contact arrangements.
Will the prison approve my number for calls?
We cannot tell you that, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Your relative submits the number through the prison's normal process, the prison checks it, and the prison decides. It may refuse. What a diverted landline number changes, if accepted, is the rate the call is charged at — not the monitoring, not the recording, not the rules.
Does the number still work if they are transferred?
Yes. One number works for any prison in the UK and the rate does not vary by region, so a transfer does not break the arrangement. The number only receives calls — there is no voicemail and no app — and if you stop, you cancel any time from your account and the number stays active to the end of the period already paid for.
Remand is a waiting room with rules, and learning the rules early is the only part of it you control.