M
You own letter about incomplete offences has also caused a good
deal of redrafting. In my letter of 21 March about international
Conventions I asked why it was that only attempts were mentioned.
You gave us the reason in your letter of 30 March that attempts
were specifically added to the extradition system by section
3(1)(c) of the Suppression of Terrorism Act 1978, while the
other incomplete offences fall, by virtue of section 3 of the
Extradition Act 1873, to be treated as if they were substantive
offences.
Section 3 of the 1873 Act is, to our mind, more satisfactory than
the 1978 provision. It would have been better in 1978 to amend
Section 3 by inserting a reference to attempts. But a provision on the lines of section 3 will only work when there is a specific
list of extradition crimes. So now we have to spell out
expressly the proposition that we are covering not only attempts but also aiding, abetting etc.
Finally, I come to the question of repeals.
We have to deal with
extension outside the United Kingdom. We can cut down the number
of separate repeals by making substitutions at the relevant
points. The surviving repeals are therefore those where there is
no question of substitution.
JDM RENNIE
Enc.