Justice Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Official Report 431KB pdf

Brexit (Preparations)

Item 4 is consideration of correspondence that has been received from Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, on preparations for Brexit. I refer members to paper 2, which is a note by the clerk. Do members have any comments on the correspondence?

I want to make a point about the correspondence, which serves as a stark reminder of the likely impact of Brexit on such areas.

I notice that Police Scotland’s note suggests that, under the European arrest warrant, only Germany has exempted itself from extraditing its own nationals, whereas the COPFS note appears to suggest that it is not only Germany that has exempted itself, but Austria and Slovenia too. I do not know whether there was a time lag in the preparation of the notes, which might explain that.

I think that Police Scotland also thought that Poland might do the same.

Poland is the other country that Police Scotland refers to, but it is not mentioned in the COPFS note. I suspect that the situation is probably fluid. However, it would be helpful to have an indication of the member states that are giving active consideration to that approach as opposed to ruling it out.

The clerk says that we are happy to keep members up to date with anything new that comes in. However, it is a bit of a moveable feast until we actually make some progress. In the meantime, are members happy to note the correspondence?

Members indicated agreement.