A report analysing security provisions in the UK-EU Trade and
Cooperation Agreement (TCA) finds that new law enforcement
arrangements are ‘complex’, remain untested and that significant
areas are missing.
The Agreement also ends UK
access to an important EU database providing vital policing
information in
real-time.
The TCA, signed on 24
December 2020, does continues some key aspects of key UK-EU law
enforcement cooperation, including the sharing of criminal
justice and security data and collaboration on extradition.
However, many important details are still to be
agreed.
These are some of the main
findings of the House of Lords EU Security and Justice
Sub-Committee's final report, which assesses what the TCA means
for continued UK-EU cooperation on policing and criminal justice
post-Brexit. It also examines new extradition arrangements it
describes as “ambitious”. The Committee is chaired by former
national security adviser, .
Data
sharing
The report highlights the
UK’s loss of access to the EU Schengen Information System
(SIS II)
“most significant gap in terms of lost
capability” for
UK law enforcement. This
was used extensively pre-Brexit to obtain information about the
movement of criminals and of missing persons. that the committee
find data via its replacement system available only “in a matter
of hours, not seconds”.
The report finds that the
agreement “avoids a cliff-edge departure” through the continued
sharing of policing and criminal justice data, including on DNA,
fingerprints, air passenger information and criminal
records.
Data
protection
In a key finding, the report
reveals that the EU will continue to monitor UK data
protection rules, holding the UK to “higher standards” as a
country outside the EU. This increases the scope for
legal challenges which, if successful, could trigger a suspension
of the TCA’s law enforcement
provisions.
The report also observes that
suspension or termination of the Agreement could be triggered
“if the UK chooses not to
stay aligned with EU data protection rules in the
future.”
Other points made in
the committee’s report
include:
-
Whether the UK meets data
protection requirements will determine the UK’s continued
involvement with EU law enforcement and criminal justice
agencies, Europol and
Eurojust.
-
On extradition, the report
finds that it will be important to monitor carefully how the
new and untested arrangements work in practice. It calls on the
government to regularly publish statistics on UK-EU extradition
warrants given the important implications for individual
liberty.
-
Following recent
high-profile errors by the Home Office in relation to policing
and criminal justice information it shares with the EU, the
department should observe “the highest standards of data
handling to maintain the necessary confidence among the UK’s EU
partners.”
-
The newly formed UK-EU
‘Specialised Committee’ will have an important role in
overseeing law enforcement and judicial cooperation,
particularly over data protection
issues.
Commenting on the
report , Committee
Chair, said:
“This agreement enables
the UK to continue to cooperate with the EU in the areas of
security and justice, including on the sharing of key data and on
extradition. The government has therefore succeeded in avoiding
an abrupt end to years of effective UK-EU joint working in these
areas, which would have put the safety of citizens in the UK and
across the EU at greater
risk.
“There are, however,
still grounds for considerable caution. These
are a complex and untested set of arrangements and their
effectiveness will depend crucially on how they are implemented
at the operational level. This will require continued
parliamentary scrutiny. The provisions on data protection are
particularly fragile. If the UK does not remain in step with
changes to EU data protection laws, or if UK is found to have
breached fundamental rights when handling personal data, then
this could trigger the suspension, or even termination, of all
the justice and security cooperation. Another area of concern is
the impact on our law enforcement agencies of loss of access to
the Schengen information System. Parliament should monitor
whether the alternative arrangements the government are putting
in place will provide equivalent access to information which is
vital to the UK’s
security.”
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’Beyond Brexit: policing, law
enforcement and security’ is the last in a series of reports
published as part of the
Lords EU Committee’s ‘Beyond Brexit’ week,
which sees its publication of five separate reports analysing
different aspects of the TCA and the future of UK-EU relations.
For more information please see: Beyond
Brexit Reports
Notes to
editors
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To read the full report
‘Beyond Brexit: Future UK-EU cooperation: policing, law
enforcement and security’, please see the following link:
committee
report
