Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the length of time an extradition would take under the (a) Extradition (Provisional Arrest) Bill and (b) European Arrest Warrant.

The Extradition (Provisional Arrest) Bill does not make provision to alter the process by which the courts and the Secretary of State determine whether a person should be extradited from the UK. Following any arrest under the power set out in the Bill, extraditions would take place under Part 2 of the Extradition Act 2003.

The Home Office does not hold statistical data on the length of cases, and this is dependent on a range of factors including any appeals and the availability of court time. Extradition cases under Part 2 with territories that use the European Convention on Extradition, such as Switzerland for example, are routinely turned around in a matter of months.