Prisoner transfer plan criticised

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The House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee accused Home Office minister Joan Ryan of "acting wilfully" and "bypassing Parliament" in pressing ahead with the EU-wide agreement.

The measure means that British nationals convicted abroad could be sent back to the UK against their will to serve out their sentence, even if the conduct for which they have been imprisoned is not a crime in Britain.

The committee raised concerns about the proposals last November, and recommended that MPs should debate the measures in another parliamentary committee before ministers went any further.

But Ms Ryan announced in December that she had "pushed hard" for agreement on the package at a gathering of European home affairs ministers.

Despite three written warnings from committee chairman Michael Connarty that she risked breaching parliamentary rules on the scrutiny of EU legislation if she agreed a deal before MPs discussed the changes, Ms Ryan went ahead with agreement on a "general approach" to the issue at a summit of EU ministers on February 15 - five days before the issue was finally debated in Parliament.

Mr Connarty said it was "hard to believe" that the Government had been unable to arrange for the debate to take place before the ministers met, as required by the Scrutiny Reserve Resolution of 1998.

This resolution states that "no Minister of the Crown should give agreement in the (European) Council to any proposal for a framework decision which is awaiting consideration in the House".

Launching the critical report, Mr Connarty, Labour MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk, said: "The Government has stated that the issue of foreign prisoners is one of their top priorities, yet they have been unable to arrange a date for the issue to be debated in Parliament. Instead they went ahead and agreed this measure which could have the bizarre consequences the committee mentioned in its report. This is a clear breach of the spirit of the scrutiny reserve resolution."

Ms Ryan told the committee that the February agreement did not prevent the issue of prisoner transfer being reopened if Parliament later called for discussion on the proposal.