§ Mr. MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 20 May 1999,Official Report, column 445, on the K4 Committee, if he (a) sent details of the agenda items to the Home Affairs Committee and (b) had consultations with United Kingdom bodies concerning mutual recognition of criminal court decisions. [85563]
§ Mr. StrawIt was not the general practice of the Government to report to Parliament on the business of the K4 Committee, in view of that Committee's role as an interim, problem-solving body whose members were responsible to their respective Ministers. Details of the agenda for the meeting on 29-30 April were not, therefore, sent to the Home Affairs Committee.
I outlined the concept of mutual recognition in a speech at the Avignon Seminar on the European Judicial Space on 16 October last year, which was made available to the press. My hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall (Kate Hoey), the Under-Secretary of State, gave further details of these proposals in oral evidence to the House of Lords European Communities Committee on 24 March, after which a United Kingdom discussion paper on mutual recognition was tabled in the Article K4 Committee on 29 March, and submitted for United Kingdom Parliamentary Scrutiny on 31 March. The Government intend to carry out further consultations with United Kingdom bodies depending on the progress of discussions in the Council of European Union on the basis of the United Kingdom paper.