§ Mr. David ShawTo ask the Attorney-General if he will make a statement on the procedure by which extradition warrants are prepared and completed in the United Kingdom and transmitted to the relevant authorities in the Irish Republic; and if it is standard procedure for the Irish authorities to confirm the completeness and correctness of documentation prior to its submission to court. [26363]
§ The Attorney-GeneralApplications for arrest warrants in the United Kingdom are made on behalf of the relevant police force to a justice of the peace or, in certain cases, to a judge.
The applications are prepared and conducted by the Crown Prosecution Service, or as the case may be, the Crown Solicitor's Office in Northern Ireland. When a warrant is obtained in a case in which extradition is sought from the Republic of Ireland it is personally delivered by the police to their counterparts in the Republic. Thereafter, the matter becomes one for the Irish authorities.
A warrant cannot be executed in the Republic of Ireland until it has been endorsed by a Commissioner of the Garda. In "accusation" cases, there is an additional requirement in that the Commissioner can not endorse the warrant without the authority of the Irish Attorney-General. Under Irish law the Irish Attorney must direct that the warrant not be endorsed unless he is satisfied that there is a clear intention to prosecute based on sufficient evidence. To enable the Irish Attorney to discharge this duty I supply him with a certificate confirming the prosecuting authority's intention to prosecute, a statement detailing the facts of the case and statement of the relevant English law. If the Irish Attorney is satisfied, the warrant is endorsed and the accused is arrested and brought before the court. This additional requirement does not apply where the person named on the warrant has, following an examination of the evidence, been committed for trial or has escaped from custody following conviction.