Draft Extradition Act 2003 (Amendments to Designations) Order 2020 Debate

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Department: Home Office
John McNally Portrait John Mc Nally (Falkirk) (SNP)
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It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I, too, wish you a belated happy St David’s day. I will be very brief as well.

The only conclusion I can make about the UK withdrawal from the European arrest warrant is that it will only bring benefits to criminals. The Government are making the current system, which is fairly straightforward, complicated. That will lead to an inevitable impact on public safety, stretching the use of public services, money and resources. That will be increased by increasing the delays in extraditions. This is actually a time for closer co-operation between neighbouring countries, rather than turning inwards and attempting to go it alone, which I think is a huge step in the wrong direction.

To finish, the system that we had was pretty fairly and honestly fixed, and all that the Government’s proposal today does is succeed in breaking that system up.