Asked by: Lord Inglewood (Non-affiliated - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether, in the event of a member state leaving the European Union, legislation on that country's statute book that originated at European Union level remains law until expressly removed by domestic legislative procedures.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
In general terms, national legislation which is validly adopted in accordance with national procedures will remain valid until it expires, is amended or repealed.
Asked by: Lord Inglewood (Non-affiliated - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they last considered the High Level Cost Benefit Analysis of Removing Legal Aid Means Testing in Extradition Cases prepared by the Ministry of Justice for Sir Scott Baker’s review of the United Kingdom’s extradition arrangements of September 2011; and when they next intend to do so.
Answered by Lord Faulks
Her Majesty’s Government last considered the Cost Benefit Analysis in October 2012 shortly before it published its response to Sir Scott Baker’s Review of the United Kingdom’s Extradition Arrangements.
Her Majesty’s Government has no plans to re-consider the Cost Benefit Analysis in the immediate future.
Asked by: Lord Inglewood (Non-affiliated - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the event of the United Kingdom not opting back into the provisions of the European Arrest Warrant, which member states still have on their statute books the legislation necessary to revert to the Council of Europe Convention on Extradition 1957.
Answered by Lord Bates
All EU member states have ratified the 1957 Council of Europe Convention on Extradition (ECE). Consequently, they will all have legislation that allows them to operate the ECE with other ECE signatories who do not use the Arrest Warrant. However, a number of EU member states have subsequently passed specific legislation to implement the Arrest Warrant and would need to pass new domestic legislation in order to allow them to operate the ECE with the UK. In some cases, this could be a lengthy process. For example, we believe that it would take the Netherlands at least a year to pass the necessary legislation and during this time they would not be able to issue extradition requests to the UK, or respond to UK extradition requests. Effectively, this would make both countries a safe haven for each others’ criminals.
Under the 1957 European Convention on Extradition, 22 Member States may also refuse to extradite its own nationals which means that some people may never face justice. In non-European Arrest Warrant cases, the following EU Member States have an absolute bar on extraditing their own nationals to the UK:
Austria
Belgium
Czech Republic
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Latvia
Luxembourg
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
A further nine have made declarations to the 1957 European Convention on Extradition to the effect that they will not extradite their own nationals:
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Estonia
Hungary
Lithuania
Poland
Portugal
Romania