§ Mr. DonaldsonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the legal causes upon which consent certificates were granted in extradition proceedings on account of(a) the extradited person making known an outstanding offence not known to the requesting authority, (b) the requesting authority discovering an offence which was not known to them at the time of the initial extradition request and (c) other reasons, in the past three years. [119715]
§ Mr. StrawIt is very rare to depart from the rule of specialty in respect of extradition proceedings. Formal certification to waive the rule is required only in relation to our extradition arrangements with Ireland. In the past three years I have signed four certificates. The details are as follows
specialty was waived to allow an individual to be questioned in relation to a suspected murder following return for possession of offensive weapons. The Irish authorities had insufficient information to include it with the other offences listed in the request for the individual's return;in the same case, a second specialty consent certificate was signed to allow the individual concerned to be proceeded against for murder, intent to rob, entering as a trespasser with intent to steal and false imprisonment:in another case, specialty was waived to allow for an individual to be proceeded against for sex offences following return in respect of larceny and fraud-related offences. The Irish authorities had insufficient information to include it with the other offences listed in the request for the individual's return; andspecialty was waived to allow an individual to he proceeded against for a number of summary offences, following his return for causing death by dangerous driving. The summonses for these lesser offences were transmitted at the same time as the warrant for the offences of causing death by dangerous driving however they were not served on the individual for operational reasons.Figures relating to other countries are not recorded. It is estimated that there have been three or four specialty waivers in the past three years, but exact numbers, and the reasons for them, could be obtained only with disproportionate cost.