Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether border controls between the UK and France are based upon a bilateral agreement between the two countries.

There are two principal bilateral agreements between the United Kingdom and France governing border controls at sea ports and on international rail routes.

These are:

The ‘Treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the French Republic concerning the implementation of Frontier Controls at the Sea Ports of both Counties on the Channel and North Sea’ which was signed at Le Touquet in France on 4 February 2003; and

The ‘Protocol between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the French Republic Concerning Frontier Controls and Policing, Co-operation in Criminal Justice, Public Safety and Mutual Assistance Relating to the Channel Fixed Link’ which was signed at Sangatte on 25 November 1991.