Extradition Act 2003

The act is divided into five parts.

• Parts 1 and 2 deal with "category 1" and "category 2" territories respectively. While it is not mentioned in the Act, category 1 territories are all member states of the European Union and Part 1 of the Act is the United Kingdom's implementation of the European Arrest Warrant framework decision.^[3] Part 2 of the Act is concerned with extradition to all other countries which have an extradition treaty with the United Kingdom, such as the United States under the 2003 treaty.^[4]
• Part 3 deals with issuing European Arrest Warrants from the UK and extradition requests.
• Part 4 regulates powers of arrest, search and seizure regarding individuals subject to European Arrest Warrants and extradition warrants.
• Part 5 contains miscellaneous provisions including extradition to and from British overseas territories.

The procedure used by the courts is set down in the Criminal Procedure Rules 2015, part 50.^[5]

The act has been examined in two reviews by Parliament. The first in 2011 by Sir Scott Baker^[6] making a series of recommendations and the second examination by the House of Lords Extradition Law Committee in 2014.^[7]

As a result of campaigning and scrutiny by Parliament, several amendments were made in 2014 in the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. These included proportionality under section 21A and decision to try or charge under section 12A.^[8]

Territories are designated as Category 2 territories both for the purposes of Part 2 of the Extradition Act, i.e. export extradition from the United Kingdom, and Part 3, i.e. import extradition to the United Kingdom.

These are the countries that the UK presently has extradition arrangements with:^[9][10]

The 2003 UK-US treaty has been criticised for not applying the same test in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and changing this would require amending the act.^[11]