Background
6.Crime, particularly serious crime, is becoming increasingly international in nature and criminals can flee justice by crossing borders with increasing ease. Improved judicial co-operation between nations is needed to tackle this development. The reform of the United Kingdom’s extradition law is designed to contribute to that process.
7.Extradition is an important tool in dealing with international crime: no one should be able to escape justice by simply crossing a border. The law should provide a quick and effective framework to extradite a person to the country where he is accused or has been convicted of a serious crime, provided that this does not breach his fundamental human rights.
8.Current United Kingdom extradition legislation was enacted in 1989. However, the 1989 Act is essentially a consolidation of three earlier pieces of legislation: Part 1 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988, the Fugitive Offenders Act 1967 and the Extradition Act 1870 (as amended).
9.The Government set out its proposals to reform the law on extradition in a consultation document “The Law on Extradition: A Review” in March 2001. It was the outcome of an exercise started in 1997 to consider the legislative requirements of two European Union Conventions on Extradition. However, it developed into a much more extensive inquiry, following the adoption at the Tampere Special European Council in October 1999 of the principle of mutual recognition of judicial decisions by Member States of the European Union.
10.The publication of the Review followed an extensive period of consultation with officials from a number of organisations including the Crown Prosecution Service, Lord Chancellor’s Department, Bow Street Magistrates' Court, Metropolitan Police, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and others. Its proposals, which were aimed at modernising arrangements between the United Kingdom and its extradition partners, included:
creating a four level framework with countries being designated for each tier by way of an Order in Council;
a simple fast track extradition procedure for Member States of the European Union;
retention of current arrangements for non-European Union states with modifications to reduce the duplication and complexity of extradition procedures;
a single avenue of appeal for all extradition cases; and
accession to the 1995 and 1996 European Union Conventions on Extradition.
11.There were 22 written responses to the proposals contained in the document, seven of which requested that their responses should not be published. The remaining 15 were published on 24 October 2001. Many detailed comments were made, but overall, the majority of those that responded supported the Review’s proposals.