Oral Answers to Questions

Barry Sheerman Excerpts

Monday 31st October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I must say to the Minister, who is a very forgiving soul, that gratitude to the hon. Member for Bassetlaw is not always a commodity in plentiful supply.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

14. What steps she is taking to ensure that vulnerable people are given adequate protection when facing extradition orders.

[The Minister for Policing and the Fire Service (Brandon Lewis)]

A judge must consider various statutory bars to extradition. It must be refused if a judge finds that it would be incompatible with a person’s human rights or an individual’s physical or mental condition, meaning that it would be unjust or oppressive to extradite.

[Mr Sheerman]

The Minister knows that the law has changed and the Home Secretary can no longer intervene in these cases. When young people are on the autism spectrum or suffering from mental health challenges, can we make sure that court officials, especially judges, understand their circumstances and challenges better? I am referring particularly to the case of Lauri Love.

[Brandon Lewis]

Without commenting on that particular case, which is before me at the moment—I will be making a decision by mid-November—the hon. Gentleman is right that those are the kinds of things that judges need to look at. They are the things that the judicial system does look at, and that is one of things that has come out of the change that was made when Parliament voted on this not that long ago.