Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on (a) implementing the recommendations of the Second Report of the House of Lords Select Committee on Extradition Law, Session 2014-15, HL Paper 126 and (b) agreeing a memorandum of understanding with the US concerning the treatment of people extradited from the UK as recommended in paragraph 53, with particular regard to transfer, pre-trial detention and bail.

A Government response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Extradition Law was published as Command Paper (9106) on 20 July 2015. The Government agreed with a number of the Select Committee’s recommendations, but in regard to a memorandum of understanding with the US found that:

“Experience has shown that the courts tend to consider issues on a case-by-case basis, and as such we do not consider that agreeing a ‘one size fits all’ Memorandum of Understanding with any country would be helpful as concerns assurances. It would not bind the courts and, in all likelihood, would only make it more difficult to obtain the individual assurances that would still be required for certain cases. As such, whilst the Government understands and sympathises with the intention behind this recommendation, it does not support it.”