HC Deb 13 December 1988 vol 143 cc513-5W
Mr. William Ross

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 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 granted for (a) crimes of a terrorist nature and (b) other types of crimes and how many were refused for each class of crime; if he will indicate for each of those 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.

Mr. Ian Stewart

[holding answer 8 December 1988]: Statistical material about extradition requests both to and from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland has been collected by the RUC since 1971. The information is not available precisely in the form requested. In particular, it has not proved possible to identify cases where, for example, the warrant was returned because the subject was subsequently found not to be in the Republic or to differentiate between those persons wanted for crimes of a terrorist nature and other crimes. The available information is however summarised in the following tables.

Requests from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland
Year Requests made Requests refused Persons ex-tradited as a result of the requests Requests still pending or not acted on for other reasons
1971 7 5 2
1972 8 5 3
1973 26 19 7
1974 7 6 1
1975 21 15 6
1976 11 8 3
1977 11 5 6
1978 9 8 1
1979 8 4 4
1980 13 2 9 2
1981 8 4 4
1982 8 7 1
1983 8 7 1
1984 14 9 5
1985
1986 6 5 1
1987 3 1 2
Requests from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland
Year Requests made Requests refused Persons ex-tradited as a result of the requests Requests still pending or not acted on for other reasons
1971 32 6 7 19
1972 20 9 11
1973 16 3 3 10
1974 30 4 9 17
1975 20 8 1 11
1976 34 6 8 20
1977 25 9 10 6
1978 40 4 15 21
1979 14 1 8 5
1980 23 3 12 8
1981 23 1 6 16
1982 36 1 18 17
1983 27 1 11 15
1984 12 12 10
1985 33 5 28
1986 5 11 4
1987 21 1 1 19
1 Robert Russell and Gerard Harte were returned during August 1988.