Schengen Agreement: ICT

(asked on 22nd July 2014) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps UK authorities would take to carry out discreet checks required under Chapter VIII of Decision 2007/533/JHA if the UK connects to the Schengen Infromation System II.


Answered by
Karen Bradley Portrait
Karen Bradley
This question was answered on 2nd September 2014

A full impact assessment has been conducted on Council Decision 2007/533/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.

No viable alternative mechanisms for connecting to SIS II have been identified. The Commission has been clear during negotiations that a bilateral treaty between the UK and the EU on any matters falling within the scope of the block opt-out is not feasible. Furthermore, on 16 January 2013 President Barroso responded to a European Parliamentary Question from Daniel Hannan MEP on this matter and stated that ‘the Commission sees no room for the conclusion of international agreements between the EU and the United Kingdom on such matters.’

SISII will be integrated into existing UK law enforcement infrastructure to keep to a minimum any additional burden. In addition, the UK’s central office for managing SIS II requests (the SIRENE Bureau) has been established within the National Crime Agency (NCA) to act specifically as the UK's single point of contact for all exchanges of information relating to SISII alerts. On 21 July 2014, the Home Secretary commenced the proportionality provisions in the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.

This includes a proportionality filter in relation to SISII Article 26 alerts (European Arrest Warrants). The filter will enable the weeding out of the most trivial European arrest warrants, ensuring resources are dedicated to the most serious criminals and that the police are not overburdened with Article 26 alerts.In terms of other SISII alerts, they only require the UK to notify the issuing Member State that the individual has come to our attention. Therefore, there is expected to be a minimal impact on existing resources.

The UK has made no distinction between the definitions used in Article 36 (chapter VIII) as concerns discreet and specific checks. Any UK law enforcement check that matches a SISII Article 36 alert will be coordinated through the NCA’s SIRENE Bureau, and the issuing Member State will be notified in accordance with the SISII Council Decision.
UK law enforcement agencies will use Article 34 alerts (chapter VII) for locating witnesses, persons summoned to appear in criminal proceedings and others. The accompanying information will include a combination of name, age, sex, colour and height of the individual. The information submitted in response to Article 34 alerts from other Member States will be in the form of supplementary information and in most cases this will just include the individual’s place of abode.

Reticulating Splines