§ Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will announce the date on which legislation to introduce extradition under the European arrest warrant will be introduced. [26605]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthWe have made our commitment to an Extradition Bill clear and measures will be brought before the House in the usual way.
§ Mr. CashTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the criteria for determining the competent authorities in each of the EU member states as to who are to be their issuing and executing judicial authorities in respect of Article 6 of the Council Framework Decision relating to the European arrest warrant. [26950]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthThe Framework Decision on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between member states stipulates at Article 1(1) that
the European arrest warrant shall be a court decision.At Article 6(1) it further stipulates that:
The issuing judicial authority shall be the judicial authority of the issuing state which is competent to issue an arrest warrant by virtue of the law of the issuing state";544W and at Article 6(2) that:The executing judicial authority shall be the judicial authority of the executing state which is competent by virtue of the law of the executing state".By this the Framework Decision makes clear that the issuing and executing authorities must be judicial authorities, but the criteria that the member states may apply to determine which of their judicial authorities shall be responsible for the issuing and execution of European arrest warrants are left to each member state to decide upon. This is consistent with Article 34.2 (b) of the Treaty on European Union, under which the Framework Decision has been negotiated, which states that:
Framework decisions shall be binding upon the member states as to the results to be achieved but shall leave to the national authorities the choice of the form and methods".
§ Mr. CashTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the offences in English law to which Article 2(2) of the Council Framework Decision relating to the European arrest warrant refers which are punishable under the law of an issuing member state by a sentence of three years and where dual criminality is not required. [26951]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthThe list at Article 2(2) is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all the serious criminal offences under the national law of all member states. To answer this question in full would require listing all the offences in English law which might fall under one of the generic headings of offences in Article 2(2) of the Council Framework Decision on the European arrest warrant, and which are punishable by a maximum sentence of at least three years, and cross-referring them to all the offences in the penal codes of the other member states of the European Union (EU) which fall under these headings which are punishable by this sentence. The generic headings listed at Article 2(2) relate to conduct for which there are criminal sanctions in all the member states of the EU, even if the legal definitions of the offences do not precisely match. On any warrant, the offence for which surrender is sought will be framed by the issuing judicial authority under its national law.
Examples of such offences in English law, to which there is a likely equivalent in the law of other member states are: under the heading of "illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances"—drug trafficking offences involving Class A or Class B drugs; under the heading of "terrorism"—offences under the Explosive Substances Act 1883 and offences under the Terrorism Act 2000 as amended by the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001; under the heading of "rape"—rape and serious sexual offences; under the heading of "swindling"—offences under the Theft Acts 1968 and 1978 that carry a sentence of at least three years; and under the heading of "racism and xenophobia", offences relating to incitement to racial hatred, racially aggravated offences and racial discrimination under the Race Relations Act, where a sentence of at least three years applies.