Clause 182 - Extradition
Enterprise Bill
4:45 pm
Miss Melanie Johnson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry; Welwyn Hatfield, Labour)
The amendment would remove the possibility of extradition for conspiracy or attempt to commit a cartel offence. The inchoate offences of attempt or conspiracy to commit an offence apply
automatically by virtue of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981 and the Criminal Law Act 1977. The UK law recognises that conspiring to commit a crime and an attempt to commit a crime are serious and should not be put beyond the reach of the law. Prosecuting such offences is an important aspect of deterring criminals and enables investigatory bodies to step in and prevent the crime from being carried out and harming millions of customers and other businesses.
For example, if two senior employees of the same company come together to agree a plan to contact other competitors to agree to fix prices, a conspiracy offence has been committed. The UK law recognises the importance of including those offences. We believe that we should not diminish their seriousness by removing from the scope a possible extradition request. We also believe that it is important for international judicial co-operation and combating cross-border crime to allow for extradition, not only for the substantive offence but for the conspiracy to commit and the attempt to commit the offence. That will act as a strong deterrent to criminals and send a strong signal that nobody should escape justice simply by crossing a national border.
There are four categories of UK extradition partners: the European convention on extradition partners, Commonwealth partners and Hong Kong bilateral treaty partners where the treaty was signed after 1989 and bilateral treaty partners where the treaty was signed before 1989. With regard to the first three groups of extradition partners, no specific measures are required to be added to new criminal offences such as this one in order to be able to extradite under other provisions of the Extradition Act 1989.
In respect of those three groups, the criteria for extradition are that the offence carries a sentence of imprisonment of 12 months or more and dual criminality applies. Both criteria must be satisfied in respect of this offence. Therefore, the proposed amendment would not affect any of these groups of extradition partners. It would not make sense to exclude the offences for the group with whom the UK signed bilateral agreements before 1989, particularly the United States. I therefore hope to persuade Opposition Members to withdraw the amendment.
The hon. Member for Eastbourne asked why we need the provision. To commit an offence as defined under clause 179 requires the involvement of at least two different undertakings at the same level of the supply chain. A director who conspires with his sales manager to arrange a cartel to fix prices will be caught under the conspiracy to commit an offence provision in clause 179. We believe that such behaviour should not be beyond the reach of the law where a court could prevent the establishment of a cartel at an early stage.
In relation to extradition with the United States, which was a further point of the hon. Gentleman, such requests are not automatic. Automatic extradition requires both states to prosecute an offender for an identical criminal offence. There are some differences between the United Kingdom offence created under
the Bill, and the United States offence brought under the Sherman Act. The US offence is not based on dishonesty, therefore a request would need to be reviewed by the UK courts to establish whether the request fulfils the criteria of it being a case where the offence applies in nature to both jurisdictions. Such a review by the courts provides an extra safeguard against automatic extradition, which is ultimately a matter for the courts to decide.