§ Mr. Menzies CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what negotiations have taken place about the setting up of a Prisoner Transfer Agreement with the US; and if he will make a statement. [118263]
§ Mr. StrawThe Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons (CECTSP) is a multilateral Prisoner Transfer Agreement which currently has 52 contracting member countries. The United Kingdom acceded to the Convention (CECTSP) in 1985. On 21 March 1983 the United States signed the CECTSP and following ratification procedures, US accession to the treaty also came into force on 1 July 1985.
The CECTSP allows prisoners to apply to transfer to serve the remainder of their sentence in their home country. Seven US states have not signed up to the CECTSP; but the US federal Government has said publicly that it is encouraging these states to do so. Therefore, there is no practical need for the UK to negotiate an additional bilateral Agreement with the US.