Question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the Statement of 9 July 2013, Official Report, column 177, on the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, if she will take steps to ensure that the police are required to inform a person of the existence of a European Arrest Warrant against them.
Answer
There is no obligation to notify the person of the existence of a warrant ahead of their arrest. It is a matter of longstanding policy and practice that the United Kingdom will neither confirm nor deny that it has received, is to make or has made an extradition request, until the subject of the request has been arrested. This is because if a person wanted for extradition learnt of the request in advance of their arrest, they would be able to take action to evade justice.