Clause 5 - Provisional arrest
Extradition Bill
3:45 pm
Mr Nick Hawkins (Surrey Heath, Conservative)
I want to make only a brief comment about a concern that we share with others, including Leolin Price QC. Clause 5 provides for an arrest even when a European arrest warrant has not been issued. Like Leolin Price, we question why there should be a power to arrest because the arresting person ''has reason to believe'' that an arrest warrant ''has been or will be'' issued in another member state. The phrase ''or will be'' causes particular mischief because it is extraordinary that such draconian powers should be based on an arresting person's belief, however reasonable, of something that does not exist. The person exposed to arrest in such circumstances will not be able to judge whether the arresting person has reason to believe, and the arresting person will be unable to inform the arrested person of the European arrest warrant or its contents because there will not be one. As we said earlier, article 11 of the framework decision clearly refers to all the circumstances of the warrant being set out to the arrested person. Clearly, that cannot happen if an arrest warrant does not exist.
Once again, the proposal seems to be a massive and unjustified extension of the powers of the state. As Leolin Price puts it, it is
''an astonishingly novel procedure: arrest for deportation, without ordinary extradition protections, for investigation and trial of an alleged offence in a foreign country under an alien and unfamiliar system of law. Clause 5 can properly be categorised as outrageous.''
The Conservatives say, ''Hear, hear'' to that. It is absolutely outrageous. I had thought about tabling amendments to delete the words ''or will be'', but clause 5 is such an anathema as it is drafted that our only sensible course of action is to vote against it.