Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential effect on the implementation of the UK's strategy against indecent images of children online of placing that strategy within the full jurisdiction of the Court of Justice of the EU, including its human rights jurisprudence, should the UK remain bound by Council Decision 2000/375/JHA after 1 December 2014.

A full impact assessment has been conducted on Framework Decision 2000/375/JHA. Details of this assessment can be found in Command Paper 8897
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/326698/41670_Cm_8897_Accessible.pdf, published on 3 July 2014.

The Government has considered the potential impacts of CJEU jurisdiction very carefully in deciding which of the pre-Lisbon police and criminal justice measures it is in the interests of the UK to rejoin. Article 72 of Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) makes clear that the maintenance of law and order and the safeguarding of internal security is a responsibility for Member States.

Article 276 of the TFEU states that the CJEU shall have no jurisdiction to review the validity or proportionality of operations carried out by the police or other law enforcement services of a Member State, or the exercise of responsibilities incumbent upon Member States with regard to the maintenance of law and order and the safeguarding of internal security.

The Government’s decision to seek to opt in to Framework Decision 2000/375/JHA will therefore not bring the Government’s strategy in tackling indecent images of children under the jurisdiction of the CJEU or any action taken by UK law enforcement pursuant to that strategy. The UK is fully compliant with this Council Decision, and we assess the risk of an adverse judgement in this area to be low.