HC Deb 13 April 1989 vol 150 c704W
15. Mr. Ian Bruce

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress he has made in securing closer international co-operation on confiscation of drug traffickers' assets.

Mr. Hurd

We have signed bilateral agreements with the United States of America, Canada, the Bahamas, Australia and Switzerland, and have completed substantive negotiations with Spain and Sweden. Other bilateral discussions are in progress, and, in the forthcoming meeting of Ministers of the Council of Europe's Pompidou Group, we shall be discussing how to strengthen co-operation in this area.

30. Mr. Colin Shepherd

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many reciprocal agreements he has now secured with other countries with regard to the tracing and seizure of drug traffickers and the freezing or confiscation of their illegally derived assets.

Mr. John Patten

We have signed bilateral agreements with five Governments and completed substantive negotiations with two others. We have played an active part in the adoption of a new United Nations convention against drug trafficking, and in work towards a new Council of European convention on the confiscation of criminal proceeds.

34. Mr. Dykes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has any plans to seek to improve the prevailing level of co-operation between European countries, including the United Kingdom, on drug trafficking prevention, detection and the concomitant prosecution of offenders.

Mr. Douglas Hogg

A suitable framework for such co-operation exists in the United Nations convention against illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, adopted in December in Vienna. We take every opportunity to encourage our European partners to sign and ratify the convention at the earliest date possible and meanwhile to implement its provisions to the fullest extent permitted by existing legislation. In all our contacts we lay particular stress on the value of international co-operation in tracing, freezing and confiscating drug traffickers' assets.