Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps the Government is taking to improve cross-border cooperation on tackling (a) organised crime and (b) paramilitary activities in Northern Ireland.

The UK and Irish Governments work together to tackle security challenges and keep people on both sides of the border safe. The UK Government has regular discussions with the Irish Government on a range of issues, including cross-border security.

Non national security criminal justice matters are a matter for the devolved Department of Justice. The Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) on Cooperation on Criminal Justice Matters provides a mechanism for the Northern Ireland Justice Minister to meet her counterpart in the Irish Government to discuss matters of shared concern.

The NI Executive leads on tackling paramilitarism in Northern Ireland and the UK Government jointly funds the Executive Programme on Paramilitarism and Organised Crime (EPPOC). EPPOC aims to create safer communities, resilient to paramilitarism, criminality and coercive control by tackling paramilitary activity in all its forms.

I commend the PSNI and An Garda Síochána for their work in keeping people on both sides of the border safe, including the work of the cross border Joint Agency Task Force (JATF) which was established to tackle organised and cross jurisdictional crime.