Committees

Call for written evidence - Brexit and EU policing and security cooperation

6 December 2017

The Home Affairs Committee calls for written evidence on areas of EU cooperation commonly referred to as ‘internal security', such as activity to combat serious and organised crime, terrorism and cyber-crime.

Cooperation with the EU

The Government has proposed the signing of a wide-ranging treaty with the EU to provide a legal basis for future security cooperation. Measures in which the Government has indicated it wants to maintain and strengthen cooperation with the EU include Europol, the European Arrest Warrant, and EU databases such as the Second Generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) and the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS).

The Home Affairs Committee in the last Parliament held a number of oral evidence sessions to explore the impact of Brexit on EU policing and security cooperation. The Committee in the current Parliament has resumed this work as part of an overarching inquiry into the challenges the Home Office faces in delivering Brexit.

Call for written submissions

Written evidence is invited on the issues set out below. Please note that submissions do not need to address all of these issues.

  • Implications of Brexit for UK law enforcement capabilities;
  • Possible obstacles to achieving the Government's aims in relation to security cooperation with the EU, as laid out in its future partnerships paper;
  • Implications of different transition or implementation models for UK-EU security cooperation after 29 March 2019;
  • Data protection issues related to EU security cooperation, including implications of the UK Government's security aims for its future data protection regime;
  • The bulk retention of communications data: the compliance of the Government's latest proposals with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and what this means for the UK's future surveillance powers; and
  • Preparations for a ‘no deal' scenario in security: necessary preparatory activities, and alternative models for cooperation and data-sharing with EU law enforcement agencies.

Please note that the Committee is focusing on areas of EU cooperation commonly referred to as ‘internal security', such as activity to combat serious and organised crime, terrorism and cyber-crime.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 12 January 2018.

Background

  • The Committee in the last Parliament held oral evidence sessions with legal experts, the National Crime Agency and National Police Chiefs' Council, Sir Julian King, EU Commissioner for Security Union, and Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol. The transcripts are available here.
  • The current Committee is examining the challenges which the Home Office faces in planning for and implementing post-Brexit arrangements, in an overarching inquiry into Home Office delivery of Brexit. This work is being taken forward in three discrete strands: policing and security cooperation is one of these (the others are immigration services and customs operations).
  • The Committee took evidence on 5 December from legal experts and the Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, on transition and data protection issues linked to EU security cooperation.

Further information

Image: PA