Transposing European Union Criminal Justice and Data Protection Measures into UK Law — Timetable Motion — 10 Nov 2014 at 17:21

The majority of MPs voted for a debate on if the UK should actually opt-out of eleven European Union criminal justice and data protection measures to be allowed to continue up until 10pm.

The motion supported by the majority of MPs in this vote was:

• That, notwithstanding the provisions of Standing Order No. 16 (Proceedings under an Act or on European Union documents), debate on the Motion in the name of Secretary Theresa May relating to Criminal Law may continue until 10.00pm, at which time the Speaker shall put the Question, if it has not already been decided.

The motion which was to be the subject of the debate was:

• That the draft Criminal Justice and Data Protection (Protocol No. 36) Regulations 2014, which were laid before this House on 3 November, be approved.

The regulations would transpose eleven European Union criminal justice and data protection measures into UK law. These measures were among those the UK had earlier in the year decided to opt out of by 1 December 2014.

The eleven measures the regulations transpose relate to the following schemes^[1]:

• Confiscation and Freezing Orders
• "ECRIS" which requires Member States to inform each other about convictions of EU nationals in another Member State
• European Supervision Order - which enables a suspect or defendant subject to a pre-trial non-custodial supervision measure (such as supervised bail) in a Member State in which they are not resident, to be supervised in their home, or other, Member State un til such time as their trial takes place.
• Joint Investigation Teams (“JITs”) - to prevent and combat crime (especially drug trafficking, people trafficking and terrorism) by providing for closer cooperation between police forces, customs authorities and other competent authorities in Member States.
• Mutual Recognition of Financial Penalties scheme which requires Member States to collect financial penalties (of over £55.31 or €70) transferred by other Member States, as they would a domestic financial penalty.
• Prisoner Transfer Framework which provides for the compulsory transfer of foreign national offenders between Member States without the consent of the prisoner
• Swedish Initiative which seeks to simplify the exchange of information and intelligence between law enforcement authorities in Member States for the purposes of conducting criminal investigations or criminal intelligence operations.
• Trials in absentia several measures relate to this scheme which deals with the issue of judgements in absentia and require mutual recognition of such judgements.
• Data Protection Framework Decision which establishes a common level of protection and an appropriate level of security when Member States exchange personal data within the framework of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

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• [1] Draft explanatory memorandum to the The Criminal Justice and Data Protection (Protocol No. 36) Regulations 2014

Debate in Parliament | Source |