Policing and Crime Bill

My Lords, the noble Lord and I may be among the few Members of this House who have this work on our bedside table on frequent occasions, and excellent it is. Perhaps I may respectfully point out the problem with what the noble Lord has said. He has made a plea towards the interests of justice. I think that he will recognise that where the prosecutors decide that there is a case and that it should be brought in this country, any extradition on that offence would be blocked. The problem therefore lies not where it is the prosecutors’ view that the interests of justice favour prosecution here as against overseas, but where there is no prosecution here. In those circumstances, does not the question become: is it in the interests of justice that someone should not stand trial at all? That is the uncomfortable but necessary dilemma to which the proposal brings one. That is why I would not be able, and have not been able, to support the idea that if there is a judicial decision—not one that orders the prosecutors to prosecute—it would be better that someone were prosecuted here rather than overseas, but that if they are not prosecuted here, they should go unprosecuted. The interests of justice require that someone in those circumstances should be prosecuted somewhere. That for me is the problem.