The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Chris Grayling)
The Ministry of Justice and the Home Office have prepared the fourth annual report to Parliament on the application of protocols 19 and 21 to the treaty on European Union (TEU) and the treaty on the functioning of the European Union (TFEU) (“the treaties”) in relation to EU Justice and Home Affairs matters. The report is submitted on behalf of both my own Department and the Home Office.
On 9 June 2008 the then Leader of the House of Lords committed to table a report in Parliament each year setting out the decisions taken by the Government in accordance with protocol 21 (“the Justice and Home Affairs opt-in protocol”) and to make that report available for debate. These commitments were designed to ensure that the views of the Scrutiny Committees should inform the Government’s decision-making process.
The Minister for Europe confirmed this commitment on behalf of the coalition Government in 2011, and this is the fourth such report. It covers the period 1 December 2012 to 30 November 2013. For completeness, the report also covers the application of protocol 19 to the treaties on the Schengen acquis integrated into the framework of the EU (“the Schengen opt-out protocol”).
Over the period covered in the report, the Government took 21 decisions on UK participation in EU Justice and Home Affairs legislative proposals. Of these, the UK opted in to 13 proposals. The Government have not taken any decisions under the Schengen opt-out protocol during the period covered by this report. At the point of publication, 11 EU legislative proposals are subject to ministerial and parliamentary consideration with regard to an opt-in decision. The report also provides an indicative list of legislative proposals which are expected to be brought forward over the next 12 months that are likely to require a decision on UK participation under the Justice and Home Affairs opt-in or Schengen opt-out protocols.