Police and Justice Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 7:00 pm on 11 July 2006.

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Photo of Lord Kingsland Lord Kingsland Shadow Lord Chancellor, Constitutional Affairs, Shadow Lord Chancellor, Parliament 7:00, 11 July 2006

It is plain from the recent Court of Appeal decision that it has the full benefits of the treaty. It is equally plain that we have none of them. That is why we tabled Amendment No. 186.

I said at the outset that I would deal with all the other amendments in opening; I have done so. I shall now deal with the other amendments in closing. Central to the response of the noble Baroness has been her contention that the tests in the treaty signed by Mr Blunkett and Mr Ashcroft are essentially of equal weight. That is not something that she said in response to the debate on the 2003 provision; but she is saying it now.

I draw the attention of the noble Baroness to Article 8 of the 2003 extradition treaty. That deals with extradition procedures and required documents. Paragraph 3 states:

"In addition to the requirements in paragraph 2 of this Article, a request for extradition of a person who is sought for prosecution shall be supported by:

(a) a copy of the warrant or order of arrest issued by a judge or other competent authority;

(b) a copy of the charging document, if any; and

(c) for requests to the United States, such information as would provide a reasonable basis to believe that the person sought committed the offense for which extradition is requested".

There is no equivalent provision in the article for the United Kingdom. I simply do not believe it credible that the assertions of the noble Baroness about probable cause, made in response to the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, can possibly be right.

The noble Baroness dealt very briefly with the issue of forums. We have signed a treaty not just with our European partners, but with all those European states which have signed up to the European convention, enshrining the forum concept contained in our Amendment No. 189. That provides that the judge ought to decide, in all the circumstances of the case, if an offence was capable of being prosecuted in this country, whether it should be prosecuted here or go abroad—whether to the United States or otherwise. That is a very simple amendment that the noble Baroness could make to the Extradition Act 2003. She has given no indication that she intends to do so. That would be an easy way out for her. If we had that forum test, it would prevent further pressure being placed on her to renegotiate the treaty itself.

As for the human rights protections, I was very surprised to hear the noble Baroness saying that she thought that the human rights issues had been dealt with satisfactorily by the Court of Appeal. Of course they had in the context of the existing law but, in terms of an appropriate balance between the extradition treaty and the human rights convention, the decision of the Court of Appeal revealed that amendments are necessary to rebalance the rights of individuals when they face extradition proceedings.

A number of noble Lords suggested that the Minister had conducted her response extremely charmingly but equally extremely unpersuasively. If I had received a set of instructions, such as those given to the Minister, from a solicitor, I would certainly have returned them immediately. I wish to test the opinion of the Committee.