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Police and Justice Bill

As I said, I want to move on and deal with each of the three Lords amendments in turn. The first of the amendments restores the prima facie evidence requirement in US requests, to which I referred earlier. Much has been said about claimed differences in the standards of evidence required by the US system and ours. The fourth amendment to the US constitution refers to ““probable cause””, stating that"““no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.””" In the UK, the law that applies is section 71(4) of the Extradition Act, which states that"““the judge may issue a warrant…if the judge has reasonable grounds for believing that…there is information that would justify the issue of a warrant for the arrest of a person””." Clearly, those standards are not exact replicas—of course not; our system is not exactly replicated in any other country—but they are very similar, and much closer than before. I remind Members that other robust safeguards in our extradition law can, and do, prevent unjust extradition, and they have been upheld in several cases taken to the High Court.