Clause 48
Policing and Crime Bill
12:15 pm
James Brokenshire (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Hornchurch, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment 252, in clause 48, page 62, line 1, leave out subsection (2).
We come now to a separate part of the Bill that deals not with asset recovery, but with matters relating to extradition and, in particular, the issue of the adoption of the Schengen information system II: how it applies to us in the UK and the interrelationship with the European arrest warrant. It is worth noting that the UK is not a part of the Schengen convention and does not currently have access to the existing Schengen information system. The framework decision underlying the EAW, though, envisages that an issuing judicial authority would transmit an EAW directly to the receiving country’s judicial authority, or by means of issuing an alert for the request of a person through the Schengen information system.
As we heard in evidence, the UK currently receives EAWs via Interpol channels, or through the Serious Organised Crime Agency. Amendment 252 is a probing amendment tabled in order better to understand the relationship between a situation where an article 26 alert has been entered on the Schengen information system, and where it has not. My understanding was that the change to the Extradition Act 2003 was intended to facilitate the UK’s compliance with the framework decision, yet subsection (2) appears to go further than this, enabling the transmission of an EAW by electronic means other than an alert on the new Schengen information system II. What do the Government envisage by that?
Will the Minister also explain what reciprocal arrangements exist with other countries to enable them to receive and process EAWs issued by the UK and transmitted in electronic form, as envisaged by the clause? Can he confirm how EAWs are currently transmitted by the UK to other countries? What impact does he expect this provision to have in terms of additional requests for extradition arising from alerts through the Schengen information system II?
In evidence to the Committee, we heard that there was an expectation that there would be a considerable increase in the number of EAWs, which would require processing by law enforcement in this country as a consequence of the changes envisaged by this clause and the Bill. Does the Minister agree with that evidence and what does he expect the cost impact will be for police forces in processing such requests? He will well appreciate the budget pressure on police forces at the moment and he will note the reports today of police forces having to reduce the number of police officers as a consequence of such budgetary pressure. What cost impact will the additional processing, required by an increase in EAWs, have on the police forces that will have to deal with arresting people for matters associated with them?
The Minister will recall that we were told that a significant number of EAW requests were being received from Poland. Does he envisage that these changes will have a bigger impact on police forces that have seen an above-average increase in population due to migration—the county of Cambridgeshire obviously springs to mind? Previous comments have highlighted the knock-on impact on police budgets of the cost of translations and of addressing an increase in population of workers coming from other accession states in the EU. What assessment has he made of the impact of those changes, particularly on those police force areas that have already seen challenges and issues to their budgets arising from them? Therefore, if further EAWs are anticipated, as seems to have been suggested in evidence, what impact does he expect this to have on police forces generally and on specific police forces that have seen an increase in population due to migration and accessions to the EU? It is important to understand this in terms of the impact of the clause the Government are proposing and what preparations have been made, are being made and will be made to ensure that any impact is properly assessed and calculated and taken into account by police forces.