Extradition Act 2003 (Amendment to Designations) Order 2007

rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 24 May be approved. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I begin by thanking Members from all parts of the House for the wonderfully warm welcome that I have received over the past few days. In many ways it reminds me of joining an aircraft carrier as a midshipman but without being shouted at. I gather that happens later on. It is certainly just as easy to get lost here. I am all too conscious of the unusual circumstances of my appointment, being the first active-list military Minister since the late noble and gallant Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis in the Conservative Administration of the early 1950s, but be assured I am very aware of the duty I owe the House and will do my utmost to fulfil it. I owe so much to this wonderful country and the opportunities it gives to its people. My father was born deep in the New Forest, the son of a Hampshire farm labourer and later a gamekeeper who died as a result of illness stemming from his injuries sustained serving on the western front with the Royal Artillery during the First World War. As a result, my father was then brought up in South Wales by his Welsh mother who remarried a coal miner. I was born in a police flat on Brixton Hill, my mother’s father being in the Metropolitan Police. He competed for Great Britain in the last London Olympics the year that I was born. At the age of seven months I sailed with my mother by troop ship to Singapore where my father, an Admiralty civil servant, was serving. Thereafter we lived in Devon, Fife, the Thames Valley and Strathclyde. Thus I was educated in both England and Scotland. As you can imagine, this background has given me strong English, Scottish and Welsh connections and I feel I understand what Britishness means. I love my country and its way of life. It is under threat and if I can do anything to strengthen the safety and security of our people while a Minister, then I feel I will have succeeded. When introduced on Monday, I was aware that my title provoked some interest, not least among the fishing fraternity. For clarity I felt I should explain where Spithead is and I thought I would use the words of the Solent chart book of 1898, which says, "““Spithead may be defined as bounded on the north by the Spit Sand, on the east by the Horse and Dean Sands, on the south by Stourbridge Shoal and Mother Bank, and on the west by West Ryde Middle””." I hope that is a lot clearer. Probably enough about me, but I enjoy racing keel boats, not too successfully, over and around Spithead and my wife has always made it clear that the two most useless things in a sailboat are an umbrella and a naval officer. When I accepted the Prime Minister’s offer of employment, I did not expect that my maiden speech would concern the complicated and high-profile area of extradition policy. I have been on a steep learning curve to assimilate the issues we are here to debate and I crave your Lordships’ forbearance. We are concerned here with further secondary legislation, required to amend the Extradition Act 2003 (Designation of Part 1 Territories) Order 2003 and the Extradition Act 2003 (Designation of Part 2 Territories) Order 2003. This instrument affects the United Kingdom’s extradition arrangements with three countries: Algeria, Gibraltar and Bosnia-Herzegovina. First, the order reflects the fact that the United Kingdom and Algeria signed a bilateral extradition treaty on 11 July 2006 and exchanged instruments of ratification on 25 February 2007. Designation of Algeria as a category 2 territory will bring this treaty into force in the United Kingdom. The extradition treaty between the United Kingdom and Algeria, signed by my right honourable friend, the then Home Secretary, Dr John Reid and the Algerian Justice Minister on 11 July 2006, is one of a package of measures, including a treaty on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, a treaty on judicial co-operation in civil and commercial matters, an agreement on the circulation of persons and readmission, and an exchange of letters between the former Prime Minister and the President of Algeria which forms the basis of the deportation and assurances procedure. These measures are designed to increase co-operation between our two countries. The extradition treaty allows extradition to be requested for any offence that attracts a maximum penalty of at least 12 months in the United Kingdom and Algeria. The evidential requirements set out in the treaty mean that both the United Kingdom and Algeria must provide a prima facie evidential case against any person whom they wish to extradite. There are currently no formal extradition arrangements between the United Kingdom and Algeria outside a number of international conventions to which we are both parties and which deal with a limited number of specific offences mostly associated with terrorism. The introduction of a formal basis for extradition for conduct covered by the United Kingdom-Algeria treaty will lead to a more efficient and effective process for extradition between the two countries. This will be preferable to relying on the ad hoc provisions in domestic extradition law for the many offences, such as murder or rape, that do not fall under the international conventions to which I referred. Indeed, one of the advantages of the new arrangements is that we will improve our ability to achieve justice for British victims of serious crimes. For clarity, I should add that, although deportation and extradition procedures are distinct, the principle of relying on credible assurances should be as applicable to extradition as it has been to deportation. We have already successfully deported individuals to Algeria. The human rights requirements applied by the UK courts that approve deportation are the same requirements that will be applied by the courts in future extradition cases. Secondly, the order also designates Gibraltar as a category 1 territory, as Gibraltar has implemented its own legislation giving effect in Gibraltar to the streamlined and simplified European arrest warrant. Although Gibraltar is not an EU member state, Article 299.4 of the Treaty on European Union 1993 provides that the treaty applies to, "““the European territories for whose external relations a Member State is responsible””." In addition, Article 33 of the Council framework decision on the European arrest warrant confirms that these arrangements apply to Gibraltar. Gibraltar has designated the United Kingdom as a state for the purposes of the European arrest warrant, and has incorporated the European arrest warrant into its own legislation. Likewise, the United Kingdom needs to designate Gibraltar as a part 1 territory so that extradition between the UK and Gibraltar can be effected by the European arrest warrant procedure. The order amends the relevant part of the Act accordingly, and ensures that the United Kingdom continues to comply with our obligations under the framework decision. Gibraltar will thus become the 27th territory to which European arrest warrant procedures will apply to extradition arrangements with the United Kingdom. Thirdly, the House will be aware that the 2006 Statutory Instrument No. 3451 designated Bosnia-Herzegovina as an extradition partner under the European Convention on Extradition. The order reflects that, under that convention, the time limit for requesting a state to submit full extradition papers in support of a request for a provisional arrest is now 40 days as opposed to 60 days. That longer time limit of 60 days was contained in the old United Kingdom-Yugoslavia bilateral extradition treaty, which previously governed the UK’s extradition relations with Bosnia-Herzegovina. The amendments are necessary to ensure that the United Kingdom can comply with its obligations under the relevant international extradition agreements. I hope that, given my explanation, the House will approve the order. I beg to move. Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 24 May be approved. 19th Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee.—(Lord West of Spithead.)