§ Mr. William RossTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish in theOfficial Report the numbers of extradition requests made to the Republic of Ireland in each year since 1967, indicating how many of those requests were for crimes of a terrorist nature and how many requests were for other types of crimes, and show for each year the number of those extradition requests which were (a) granted (b) refused for (i) crimes of a terrorist nature and (ii) other types of crimes and how many were refused for each class of crime; if he will also indicate for each of these years, and each class of crime, how many extradition requests and warrants were found by the Irish authorities and the Irish courts to be unacceptable; if he will also publish in the Official Report the same information for extradition requests made to the United Kingdom by the Republic of Ireland; and if he will make a statement.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonInformation in respect of requests made to the Republic of Ireland prior to 1987 is not available centrally and cannot be ascertained. However, it is known that between 1967 and 1987 two requests were made in respect of a person accused of crimes of a terrorist nature. In 1973 a request was refused following an appeal to the High Court in Dublin. A request made in 1984 is still outstanding after the failure of the accused person to appear at an appeal hearing.
In 1987, requests were sent to the Republic of Ireland in three cases. None of these was in respect of crimes of a terrorist nature. In the current year, no requests have fallen to be made. In the period since the beginning of 1987, no requests have been refused.
Information as to requests for the extradition of persons resident in Scotland from the Republic of Ireland is not available centrally and cannot be obtained except at disproportionate cost, but I understand that such requests are likely to have averaged two or three per annum and, so far as can be ascertained, they have been granted.