Clause 47 - Transfer of UK prisoner to assist investigation abroad
Crime (International Co-operation) Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Ms Caroline Flint (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (reducing organised and international crime, anti drugs co-ordination and international and European issues), Home Office; Don Valley, Labour)
I welcome you to the proceedings this afternoon, Mr. Benton. We shared a short time serving together on the Select Committee on Education and Employment when I was first elected to the House and I am privileged to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon.
Clause 47 deals with outgoing requests from the United Kingdom for prisoners to be transferred from the UK to another country. In transfer cases, the competent authority making the transfer might not be a judicial authority in one of the countries involved. It need not even be a judicial authority. The mutual legal assistance convention requires that type of request to be transmitted between central authorities, not directly between judicial authorities.
When a prisoner is to be transferred from the UK under the clause, the request will be made by the prosecuting authority. The authority making the request will depend on the circumstances of the case. In a police investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service will issue the request on their behalf; in a Customs investigation, Customs will issue its own request as it is designated as a prosecuting authority. When a prisoner is transferred to the United Kingdom at the request of another state under clause 48, the request and practical arrangements will be handled by the UK central authority and the Prison Service, which will liaise with the prison in which the prisoner is held. There is no involvement of a judicial authority at the UK end.
While the authority at the requesting end of the process will be a competent judicial authority, a different non-judicial authority could—and, in the case of the UK, does—deal with the request at the executing end. It will therefore not be appropriate to refer only to judicial authorities for that reason.
We have not sought to define ''competent authority'' because we do not wish to exclude appropriate authorities that have the authority to deal with such transfers. We are satisfied that that will not lead to a situation in which we execute requests from inappropriate authorities. All such requests must
be routed by the central authority, the Secretary of State, in the requesting and the requested state, providing a check at both ends of the process that the request comes from a valid and appropriate authority. I hope that I have reassured the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice).