Priti Patel – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Priti Patel on 2014-04-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with the St Lucia government on delays in the criminal justice system in homicide cases in that country.

Mark Simmonds

Our officials have had a number of discussions with the Government of St Lucia about delays in the criminal justice system, particularly in relation to cases involving British nationals. In December last year, our High Commissioner to St Lucia raised the issue with the St Lucian Home Affairs Minister and in April 2014, the British Resident Commissioner raised the issue with the St Lucian Prime Minister. I also wrote to the Prime Minister of St Lucia in September about the delays in the criminal justice system.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office supports wider government efforts to build the St Lucian Government’s capacity to prosecute serious crime. This includes the deployment of a Crown Prosecution Service Criminal Justice Advisor (CJA) to the Eastern Caribbean. The CJA provides strategic analysis and advice to politicians and practitioners (judiciary, prosecutors and investigators) in order to improve the efficiency of the justice system and remove blockages to effective prosecutions.