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Policing and Crime Bill

Has a judge ever considered bars to extradition on an application by a defendant prior to adjourning the warrant? Are there any examples of that? That was the noble and learned Baroness’s first reason. Her second was that it cannot really worry someone who is properly sent to prison that he might be extradited at the end of his sentence. That comment does not touch common humanity. Thirdly, she said that there would be a double hearing on the bars to extradition. Our proposals are that they should be dealt with once and for all at the time that the request is made, whereby, instead of adjourning the request, the judge would say, "There’s an obvious bar to extradition here and I am putting an end to it". As I said in my opening remarks, there is no reason whatever why the requesting country in the years that pass—say, two or three years later at the end of the sentence—should not renew the request if it wishes to. The bars to extradition can be examined at that time.