Draft Extradition Act 2003 (Amendment to Designations) Order 2025

Edward Argar Excerpts

Tuesday 14th October 2025 General Committees

[Edward Argar (Melton and Syston) (Con)]

I will be brief. I associate myself with the Minister’s remarks to you and your constituents with respect to recent events.

It is a pleasure to make a brief speech in a Delegated Legislation Committee opposite the Minister. When he shadowed me, and sat on this side of the Committee Room, we spent many a happy hour on the Committee Corridor. However, he should rest assured that I do not intend to use this opportunity to get my own back on him for what he did back then, because I regard him not only as a friend, but as an extremely diligent Minister.

In that vein, regarding the largely technical measure before us, I seek only one real assurance from him. It reflects the penultimate two paragraphs of the letter sent yesterday by the Security Minister to members of the Committee. He has reassured the Committee that he has put in place ongoing co-ordination processes to ensure that, on an ongoing basis, any issues that arise are dealt with in a timely fashion.

I seek the Minister’s reassurance that he and his officials are now confident that they have taken this opportunity—with this piece of delegated legislation—to remedy any other errors that might have been identified, or at least checked that there were no other anomalies in the existing legislation.

[Alex Norris]

I am grateful for those constructive and thoughtful comments from colleagues opposite. I share the positivity that the Opposition spokesperson feels around the progress made with Chile. It just shows that these partnerships, built over time, can build an international rules-based order that creates freedoms around the world. That is something we should be very proud of.

I would also like to make it very clear that I strongly share the shadow Minister’s views on Hong Kong, and I hope colleagues will take comfort from what the Security Minister said yesterday about the Government’s resolution to stand with members of the Hong Kong community, who have really catered to our country. They are making a huge impact in Nottingham, as they are across the country, and we are committed to supporting them. We are proud to stand up for the rights of the people of Hong Kong, and we will continue to monitor developments closely.

The shadow Minister asked for assurance on our robust engagement with China and Hong Kong, and I can absolutely give him that commitment. As he said so importantly, I also restate the shared view across multiple Governments, and across the House, that extradition must never be used for political purposes. I think we can have a significant degree of assurance that the systems underpinning extradition in this country will endure whatever the changes of Government or political mood or sentiment. The 2003 Act, which we are amending today, and the European convention provide a sound underpinning that gives an independent judiciary the ability to ensure that individuals have that protection. I hope that reassures the shadow Minister and colleagues.

I had a degree of trepidation when I saw the right hon. Member for Melton and Syston—I also cannot get used to saying that name, as I said Oadby and Wigston so many times.

[Edward Argar]

Charnwood.

[Alex Norris]

Charnwood—gosh, it does seem like a thousand years ago. The right hon. Member for Melton and Syston was an excellent and helpful Minister when I shadowed him during the pandemic, which was an exceptionally important period for our country. I gave him a tricky ride at times, but I did so in good humour, as he always was too. I am grateful that he is yet to repay that debt, although I am sure that is inbound.

It is worth noting the timeliness of the correction on Zimbabwe, which is 22 years out of date. Thinking back to 2003, I had terrible highlights and was dancing to Busted on the campus of the University of Nottingham, and I was not generally thinking that I would be here 22 years later. When we find something like this, it behoves us to scrub to ensure that there is nothing else. I can assure the right hon. Gentleman that we have done that scrub, and there are no other such anomalies to be tidied up in the future.

To conclude, I want to reiterate that this order does not reflect a change in Government policy towards the countries named, or the extradition system more generally. It seeks to ensure that changes to the international framework are reflected in our domestic law. On that basis, I hope the Committee can support the order.

Question put and agreed to.