Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the UK would lose access to the Prüm Convention in the event of a vote to leave the EU.

As set out in the Government’s White Paper on the process for withdrawing from the European Union, published on 29 February 2016, the rules for exiting the EU are set out in Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union. The process that would be followed is unprecedented – no country has ever used Article 50. It would be a complex negotiation involving all 27 remaining EU Member States and the Commission.

Should the UK leave the EU, future collaboration in relation to the relevant EU Prüm measures would depend on the outcome of the negotiation. Two non-EU countries (Norway and Iceland) have concluded an agreement to access Prüm, although both are part of the border-free Schengen area. The agreements were concluded in 2010, but neither agreement has yet entered into force.