Schedule 12 - Extradition
Police and Justice Bill
5:00 pm
Nick Herbert (Shadow Minister (Police Reform), Home Affairs; Arundel and South Downs, Conservative)
Yes, but the Minister knows perfectly well that a great deal of concern has been expressed outside the House. I am seeking to avoid going into specific cases, but that is the essence of the concern relayed to me by the employers’ organisations—the CBI and the Institute of Directors—about company directors who face potential extradition under these arrangements. The Minister did not respond to my point that there is a retrospective element to this legislation, which means that it may apply to offences that would not actually have been offences in this country because of that retrospective nature. That is a serious issue, so in responding to the Minister I was seeking to explain why, in her words, we have been fixated on that. It is because an injustice may be done to those individuals; that is as far as I wish to go in commenting on particular cases. However, there is absolutely no doubt that great concern has been expressed about the one-sided nature of these arrangements. To suggest the idea that we are fixated is simply to cheapen the debate.
These amendments would give the Government a negotiating tool. They would help to put pressure on the United States. I am not persuaded that they would have unintended side effects, since the Minister could not say what those really were. I therefore wish to put these amendments to the vote.