Minister accused over EU jail law

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The Home Office has been accused of railroading controversial EU laws on the movement of prison inmates between member states through Parliament.

MPs were not given a chance to debate the plan, which could become UK law, the EU scrutiny committee has claimed.

Home Office Minister Joan Ryan insists correct procedures were followed.

But Labour MP Lindsay Hoyle accused the minister of having "total disregard" for Parliament's right to scrutiny.

The row centred on an EU draft council framework decision on the transfer of prisoners - the government wants more foreign prisoners to serve their sentences in their own country's jails.

Scrutiny laws

It says British prisoners will be able to serve sentences close to family and friends, which will help reintegrate them into society afterwards.

The government usually does not agree to European legislation unless the European Scrutiny Committee has decided whether they ought to be debated first.

The committee found itself scrutinising something that had already come into effect, or on which agreement had been reached James Clappison MP

But in this case it said the Home Office had agreed to the measure, days before it was due to be debated - something the committee believed to be a breach of the spirit of scrutiny legislation.

Committee member, Tory MP James Clappison, said: "By the time this matter came before a European Standing Committee, the issue has been done and dusted, agreement had been reached and that committee found itself scrutinising something ... on which agreement had been reached."

At an evidence session on Wednesday, the committee said some serious concerns remained about the proposed legislation.

Some suggested the Home Office was backing the plan because Britain has far more EU prisoners than there are Britons in other EU prisons - so the legislation would ease pressure on the UK's overcrowded jails.

'Justice and fairness'

Committee chairman Michael Connarty said Parliament had been "denied its rights" by the failure to carry out the committee's request for a debate before the European Council of Ministers meeting.

Tory MP William Cash told Mrs Ryan it was not just a row about the process but could result in a British national, convicted abroad, being transferred back to the UK against his will and imprisoned here for conduct which is not criminal in this country.

"That is a crucially important question of justice and fairness," he said.

Joan Ryan said the Home Office respected the committee

Ms Ryan said she regretted that they had not had time to debate the legislation, before the meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels in February.

She said the process had been speeded up when Germany took over the EU presidency and attempts had been made to find time for a debate but of the three dates suggested, none had been suitable.

She told the committee it was an important policy which would be beneficial to the UK and only a "general approach" had been agreed, which meant the government reserved the right to reopen negotiations.

"I was not in any way trying to deliberately override or breach the spirit of the scrutiny reserve. I have the greatest of respect for the committee," she said.

She added: "We had made very clear the importance of this policy, the position we had taken with the European Union.

"Our position would be untenable if we had not been able to participate in a general approach, but this was made absolutely clear at the Justice and Home affairs council, that this was subject to the scrutiny reserve."

But Mr Clappison said that the Cabinet Office's own guidelines said that negotiations would only be reopened in very limited circumstances.