Extradition: UK Law and Practice (Extradition Law Committee Report)

Baroness Wilcox Excerpts

Wednesday 16th September 2015 Grand Committee

[Baroness Wilcox (Con)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Inglewood for his masterly chairmanship of the ad hoc Select Committee on Extradition Law, on which I have been privileged to serve. I also take this opportunity to thank the clerks and advisers for their patient answers to the many questions I seem to have asked in the past couple of days.

If I may say so, my noble friend’s speech was excellent and was so wide-ranging that I only really need to talk briefly to two of the recommendations. As we have heard, our committee wants UK officials to gain assurances from their American counterparts about the transfer, pre-trial detention and bail of people facing extradition to the United States. Some individuals assessed in the UK as presenting a low risk of either violence or absconding are nevertheless restrained during flights or detained in high-security facilities. We have heard more from Lord Hart of Chilton on this issue. The Government’s response shows some willingness to seek assurances, but can the Minister say more? I should like to think that issues besides individual health could be discussed in this area.

Secondly, I was fortunate during the committee’s investigations to sit in on two extradition cases at Westminster magistrates’ court. One involved a young Polish fellow who was assisted in court only by a much-needed interpreter. In the other case, however, the defendant had legal help, and the difference was noticeable in terms of clarity for both judge and defendant. That took me back, quite a long way—to 1996-97, when I participated in a review of the civil court division of the Court of Appeal, led by Sir Geoffrey Bowman, and which included the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf, whom I see is in his place here today, which is very pleasing. He was Master of the Rolls at the time. That review was prompted by an increasing number of lay litigants in person—some 25% of the cases back then. We witnessed many lay litigants, and judges, struggling through mountains of disordered papers with looks of confusion. The individual stress and the time wasted was terrible, and I remain glad that our recommendations—some, at least—helped to alleviate both.

Since then, I have discovered something called the personal support unit. What a difference it is now making in the civil courts. Usually under the guidance of a retired lawyer, trained volunteers, at no charge, assist people who are facing civil court proceedings without legal representation. I wish a PSU or an equivalent could be involved in extradition cases such as the ones I have observed.

More substantially, there is an overwhelming case for the Government to do further detailed work on the costs and benefits of the effect of removing means testing for legal aid in extradition cases. Remember that, in most extradition cases, requested people have yet to be convicted of any crime. Innocent until proven guilty—that principle is one we really must cherish and protect, and it is a suitable point on which to conclude.