Lords ask Minister to address concerns about UK-EU security cooperation post-Brexit

The letter follows the Committee's recent hearing with representatives from the Metropolitan Police, National Crime Agency (NCA), Border Force, and the Home Office on efforts to mitigate the UK's loss of access to EU security tools and databases.

Despite assurances about contingency arrangements for security cooperation, the Committee heard that the effectiveness of these plans would rely on Member States being ready and willing to move cooperation to ‘fall-back' non-EU mechanisms, such as Interpol and bilateral channels. The Committee were also concerned by witnesses' admission that these alternative arrangements would at best “close the gap”, and were in no way “like-for-like" replacements for EU tools. The Committee's letter urges both parties to work to solutions to maintain security cooperation in the interests of the safety and security of UK and EU citizens alike.

Despite recent votes in the House of Commons, the risk of a ‘no deal' Brexit remains and so the letter also asks the Government for further clarification on 'fall-back' arrangements for:

• Extradition
• Information sharing (especially Passenger Name Records)
• Police cooperation (including through Europol)

The Committee also asks for an update on the Government's progress in rolling over EU Justice & Home Affairs international agreements to apply to the UK post-Brexit.

Read the full letter here.