§ Mr. CameronTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the EU arrest warrant will be included in the Extradition Bill; when he expects the Bill to be published; whether the agreed text of the EU arrest warrant covers the offence of xenophobia; whether a United Kingdom citizen could be arrested under the EU arrest warrant for an alleged act which is not an offence under UK law; and whether the EU arrest warrant can be 289W used to arrest a United Kingdom subject in the United Kingdom for an alleged offence committed from within the United Kingdom's boundaries. [29404]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthThe Government have made their commitment to an Extradition Bill clear, and it will be brought before the House in the usual way; the Bill will include provisions to implement the Framework Decision on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between member states.
The text of this Framework Decision, which was provisionally agreed at the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 6 December 2001, includes in the list at Article 2(2) for which the dual criminality test has been abolished, the generic heading of racism and xenophobia.
In respect of any warrant, the offence for which surrender is sought will be framed by the issuing judicial authority under its national law. The generic headings listed at Article 2(2) relate to conduct for which there are criminal sanctions in all the member states of the European Union (EU), although the definitions of the offences do not match precisely. Where the issuing judicial authority includes an offence on the warrant which does not fall under one of the headings at 2(2), the dual criminality test may be applied by the executing judicial authority.
Article 4(7) of the Framework Decision provides that the executing judicial authority may refuse to execute the European Arrest Warrant:
Where the European arrest warrant envisages offences which:(1)are regarded by the law of the executing member state as having been committed in whole or in part in its territory or in a place treated as the territory of that member state;(2)have been committed outside the territory of the issuing member state and the law of the executing member state does not allow prosecution for the same offences when committed outside the territory of the executing member state".The Framework Decision, therefore, contains protection against the surrender of a fugitive, of any nationality, from the United Kingdom for an alleged offence committed in the United Kingdom which is not an offence under our law. The Government's position will be finalised in the Extradition Bill.
§ Mr. MalinsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the agreement reached on the EU arrest warrant. [29817]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthAt the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the European Union on 6–7 December 2001 all member states bar Italy reached provisional agreement on the European arrest warrant; on 11 December, Italy indicated that it too could accept the text. Agreement was subject to national parliamentary scrutiny reservations entered or retained by five member states, including the United Kingdom (the others were Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland). The European Parliament is being reconsulted on the European arrest warrant, and the Council will need to consider its opinion, expected in February, before the European Arrest Warrant can be adopted.