Further supplementary memorandum submitted
by the Ministry of Justice
ANSWERS TO
THE JUSTICE
SELECT COMMITTEE'S
QUESTIONS FOLLOWING
LORD BACH'S
APPEARANCE TO
GIVE EVIDENCE
ABOUT JUSTICE
ISSUES IN
EUROPE
Q237: If you find an example of why the UK's
failure to participate in an amending measure would make it inoperable
for other Member States, please let us know?
As was said in the hearing, the threshold of
a measure being made inoperable will be very high and we are unaware
of any likely amendments where we can envisage not being able
to remain in the original measure. Any hypothesising on measures
being made inoperable may be counterproductive at this stage as,
in each case, it would depend on the precise nature of any amendments
to the original measure.
Q265 and 266: Has the Government made any
projections on the likely demand for EAW requests over the next
five years? If you've projected that the number of cases will
go up, have you made any plans to cope with the increase?
It is envisaged that the UK will connect to the Schengen
Information System 2 (SIS 2) in 2011. It is believed that this
could result in a 250% increase in the number of arrests made
pursuant to EAWs when the UK connects to the system.
The Home Office has co-ordinated work, since
2008, to plan what action should be taken by departments, agencies
and services involved in the operation of the European Arrest
Warrant to deal with the envisaged rise. Recommendations have
since been made to these stakeholders and meetings are held regularly
to review progress.
For further information on the work undertaken
by the Home Office to plan for the impact of SIS 2 on the operation
of the European Arrest Warrant, please see:http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/ia-police-crime-bill-08/ia-schengen-amendments2835.pdf?view=Binary
March 2010
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