Intelligence Services and Police

(asked on 4th April 2019) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on (a) security and policing in the UK and (b) the ability of British security services to work with their European counterparts.


Answered by
Nick Hurd Portrait
Nick Hurd
This question was answered on 9th April 2019

The Government published ‘EU Exit: Assessment of the Security Partnership’ (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/759760/28_November_EU_Exit_-_Assessment_of_the_security_partnership__2_.pdf) on 28 November 2018.


This assessed the potential impacts of the UK leaving the EU, comparing the Future UK-EU Security Partnership (as set out in the Political Declara-tion) against a no deal scenario.
In a deal scenario, the agreement reached with the EU would provide for an implementation period during which we’d continue to use all the EU security tools we use now. For the future relationship, the Future Security Partnership would enable strong operational capabilities to tackle serious crime and terrorism: swift and effective data exchange; fast-track surrender arrangements; and continued close cooperation with Europol and Eurojust.

In a no deal scenario, the UK would no longer be able to cooperate with the EU using EU law enforcement and criminal justice mechanisms. The Home Office has therefore coordinated the preparation of robust contingency plans, to ensure that we can transition our cooperation with European partners and continue to work together through alternative channels, should that be required. Broadly speaking, this would mean making more use of Interpol, Council of Europe Conventions and bilateral channels. Whilst these alternatives are not like-for-like replacements, they are largely tried and tested mechanisms which the UK already uses to cooperate with many non-EU countries. Our overriding objective, however, remains to secure a deal that is in the interests of both the UK and the EU.

Much of our national security cooperation with our European partners takes place outside EU structures and so is not dependent on our membership of the EU.

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