Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of whether Framework Decision 2002/465/JHA would permit national legislation that required the relevant competent authorities to establish joint investigation teams under the Second Additional Protocol to the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, where that Protocol is available, rather than under the Framework Decision.

It is a matter for Member States to define how their competent authorities establish joint investigation teams. However, the Second Additional Protocol is not in force in Austria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain and as such does not offer a basis for the UK to establish joint investigation teams with those Member States. To date the UK has participated in 54 joint investigation teams.

This includes six JITs with Member States that have not ratified the Second Additional Protocol, five of which are ongoing. A recent example of a Joint Investigation Team was Operation Birkhill, which was a joint operation with Hungary targeting a UK-Hungarian sex trafficking organised crime group. As a result of the operation, five people were sentenced to a total of 36 years imprisonment earlier this year.