There should be a statutory ban on the identification of people who are arrested for sexual offences in England and Wales, a committee of MPs has said.
The Home Affairs Select Committee said sexual offence suspects deserved the right to anonymity, unless they were charged or police needed to name them.
There should be "zero tolerance" of their identities being leaked, unattributed, to the media, it added.
Bail should also initially be limited to 28 days, the MPs said.
The committee's report on police bail also said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) should apologise to broadcaster Paul Gambaccini after he was kept on bail for 12 months over an allegation of historical sexual abuse before the case against him was dropped.
'Flypaper practice'Committee chairman Keith Vaz said reform of police bail was "long overdue" and it was "unacceptable" that people could be kept on bail for months and then be told no action would be taken against them without any explanation.
In March Mr Gambaccini told the same committee that lost earnings and legal fees had cost him more than £200,000 as a result of him being kept on bail until the case was dropped against him in October.
Mr Vaz said: "Suspects deserve to remain anonymous until charge.
"Police use of the 'flypaper' practice of arresting someone, leaking the details, then endlessly re-bailing them in the vague hope that other people come forward is unacceptable and must come to an immediate end.
"It is inexcusable that information about suspects is released to the media in an informal, unattributed way.
"We have seen how destructive this can be to a person's livelihood, causing irreparable reputational damage and enormous financial burden."
'Strong arguments'The committee said the identification ban would stay in force unless and until a suspect was charged or if police believed there were "public safety" reasons for naming them.
It said that if police wanted to release information about a rape suspect, for policing reasons, they should do so in a formal way.
It was "in the interests of the police, post-Leveson, to demonstrate that they understand the level of public distrust that has built up over the informal relationship between the police and the media", the report said.
But BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said there were "strong arguments on both sides" of the debate about whether rape suspects should be identified before they were charged.
He said the proposal was likely to be opposed by victims' groups and by media organisations such as the Society of Editors, which says it would be a "serious mistake" to restrict information to which the public have a right to know.
Our correspondent said: "When a suspected sex offender is named after arrest, that can encourage victims to come forward, as in the case of Max Clifford.
"But it can also cause immense damage to the reputation of someone who may be innocent - and it's for that reason that the Home Affairs Committee believes suspects should be granted anonymity, just as victims of sexual offences are."
Bail reviewsThe group of MPs also recommended introducing an initial time limit on bail of 28 days - a proposal put forward by Home Secretary Theresa May in December.
A decision to re-bail at 28 days could be taken by the police, but subject to challenge by a senior police officer independent of the investigation, the committee said.
Decisions to re-bail should be reviewed at three-month intervals by the courts.
End Quote Committee reportThe onus at each review should be on the police to justify the reason for re-bail"
The report said: "The onus at each review should be on the police to justify the reason for re-bail and introduce certainty to a process that at present keeps suspects in limbo for an unspecified period and with poor information as to why.
"It should encourage the police to use bail less, to investigate more thoroughly before arrest, and to finish investigations more quickly."
Under the proposals the police could apply to the courts for exemptions from the review process if they could show the nature of the case meant the investigation would be complex, such as where evidence needs to be retrieved from overseas.
But the committee said the proportion of such cases "should be small".
When no further action is taken against someone who has been on police bail for longer than six months the CPS should write to the individual explaining the decision, the committee said.
The MPs added that the CPS should write and apologise to Mr Gambaccini, explaining why the case took so long when the original police investigation was dropped for insufficient evidence a month before he was even arrested.
It was unfair to write to the complainant and not to the person who had been complained against, they said.
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