Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what Government policy is on the maintenance of border control arrangements between France and the UK for (a) rail, (b) ferry and (c) flight passengers after the UK exits the EU.

The Government’s White Paper, “The United Kingdom’s exit from and new partnership with European Union” published on 2 February makes clear that Brexit must mean control of the number of people who come to Britain from Europe. We will continue to attract the brightest and the best to work or study in Britain but there must be control.

Parliament will have an important role to play in this and we will ensure businesses and communities have the opportunity to contribute their views.

There are a number of options as to how EU migration might work once we have left the EU. We are considering various options and it would be wrong to set out further positions at this stage.

However, the bilateral agreements underpinning our juxtaposed controls on rail and ferry services are not directly affected by Britain’s membership of the EU and we are committed to working together with France to protect our shared border and to maintain the juxtaposed controls arrangements. The French Government has repeatedly made it clear that removing the juxtaposed controls would not be in the interests of France.