UK policing "as prepared as possible" for a potential no-deal EU exit

Police across the UK are well prepared for the country to leave the European Union with or without a deal, the two police chiefs leading law enforcement planning have said.

Preparations for a potential loss of EU tools and powers are now complete. A new unit, the International Crime Coordination Centre (ICCC), created in September 2018 has established a network of officers with expertise in international policing to assist frontline officers in using contingencies in the event of a no-deal EU Exit.

A no deal exit would mean UK law enforcement losing access to the Schengen Information System II (SIS II), the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS), Europol and the European Investigation Orders.

National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Brexit, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Richard Martin said:

“We are well prepared for EU exit, and better prepared for a no-deal exit than we were in March or April.  We have used the last six months to mature our contingency planning, speed up processes where we can and train around 10,000 officers in using alternative arrangements.  This includes discussing legislation with the Home Office that would close the capability gap we currently face around the power of arrest if we lose the ability to use the European Arrest Warrant (EAW).

“We are ready to use alternative arrangements to the current EU tools and powers, but they are not like-for-like replacements.  In all cases the replacements are slower, less effective, and more bureaucratic for officers than our existing setup.

“Existing EU tools allow us to respond quickly and intelligently to crime and terrorism impacting the UK and the EU - they make us better at protecting the public.  We want to avoid leaving without a deal because that would see us lose access to those important tools.

“Our relationship with our European counterparts remains strong and we will continue to work together in the interests of UK and EU citizens.”

Operational plans for a range of potential scenarios, including protest, crime and emergencies, have been finalised and tested.

Officers have been taking part in exercises with colleagues from other emergency services and local resilience forums (LRFs) to ensure a joined-up response.

The National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC) has also tested their established plans to move officers around if necessary, through mutual aid. This process is routinely used multiple times a year.

National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Operations, Chief Constable Charlie Hall said:

“Our planning considers what might happen and the worst-case scenarios.  We are not predicting these outcomes, but we are preparing for them.

“We expect protests to occur, whatever the outcome of our exit from the EU. We are prepared to police protest activity across the country. Protests to date have been predominantly peaceful and we will continue to monitor intelligence in our efforts to ensure this continues.

“We will always seek to facilitate the right to peaceful protest, balancing the right to protest with disruption to local communities. We work with protest organisers to achieve this.

“The public can help us keep protests safe by being vigilant for anyone or anything that looks out of place or suspicious and reporting it to a member of staff, security or police.

“Police are trained and equipped to maintain public order and have established plans to surge officers within force or mobilise officers across the country if necessary.”

Police forces will be keeping records of costs arising from operational planning to leave the EU but it is not yet possible to give an estimate.

Annual leave embargos are in place in 26 forces. There is currently no plan to issue a national embargo on leave. This position is under constant review and each chief will be looking at their own local situation.

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Notes to editors

Notes to Editor

• NPoCC’s national mobilisation plan and requirements are always in place to respond to planned events and spontaneous national issues or emergencies.
• The ICCC has been preparing to mitigate, as much as possible, the negative effects of exiting the European Union without a deal. It is staffed by police officers and staff, teams from the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the national Criminal Records Office (ACRO) who will offer guidance on the replacement tools. A network of officers across the country have been trained to advise and help colleagues in forces.

Explanation of Key tools

Schengen Information System (SIS) II

The Schengen Information System is an EU-wide IT system that enables all participating member states to share real-time information on persons and objects of interest to law enforcement via a series of alerts. This includes Article 26 alerts which circulate European Arrest Warrants on SISII.   SISII and PNC are linked so checking PNC automatically checks SISII. This dramatically increases the speed of circulation and allows a faster response without any extra effort from officers on the ground.

If we leave the EU without a deal, we will be fall back on bilateral channels or Interpol. Interpol provides a secure channel through which we exchange information, on a police-to-police basis.

If an officer wants to make a check on Interpol it will be a manual act, compared to the current automatic SIS II checks. Interpol results do not always come instantly, and we will be reliant on EU countries sharing information with Interpol.

Statistics:

• As of December 2018, over 82.2 million alerts were on SIS II in relation to people and objects wanted for law enforcement purposes.
• At the end of 2018, there were over 2.9 million UK alerts in circulation.
• Law enforcement officers in the UK accessed SIS II over 600 million times in 2018, the fourth highest number of checks after France, Spain and Germany.

European Arrest Warrant (EAW)

The European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is a legal framework that facilitates the extradition of individuals between EU Member States to face prosecution for a crime that they are accused of, or to serve a prison sentence for an existing conviction.

If we lose the EAW power the UK would operate the 1957 European Convention on Extradition with EU Member States. The European Convention on Extradition is currently used to extradite individuals to and from non-EU Member States.

We would revert to Interpol red notices. This would be reliant on EU member states manually adding information to Interpol as well as to SIS II.

Interpol red notices do not have a power of arrest, as EAWs do. To get the power to arrest someone wanted on a red notice police would have to go to a Magistrates Court to get a warrant for arrest – it would not be possible to arrest someone immediately without a warrant.

Statistics:

• In 2018/19 for every person arrested on a UK issued European Arrest Warrant, the UK arrested eight people on warrants issued by other member states.
• Prior to the implementation of the European Arrest Warrant in 2004, fewer than 60 individuals a year were extradited from the UK. Since 2004, the EAW has enabled the UK to surrender over 11,000 individuals accused or convicted of a criminal offence to other Member States.
• In 2018/19 1,412 individuals were arrested in the UK on a European Arrest Warrant, and 190 individuals were returned to the UK using EAW.

European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS)

ECRIS is a secure electronic system for the exchange of information on criminal convictions between Member States’ authorities. In a No Deal scenario requests for criminal records information would be facilitated under the 1959 Council of Europe Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance.  The 1959 Convention is already used as the basis for exchange with a number of other countries.

Losing access to ECRIS would mean checks about an EU national’s criminal history could take an average of 66 days compared to an average around 6 now. This is based on ACRO’s assessment of the average time for returns from non-EU countries – some are faster than this and some are slower.

Losing access to ECRIS would mean officers may have to make decisions about whether to release someone under investigation or to allow bail without having access to an EU national’s criminal record history.

Statistics:

• In 2018 ACRO sent and received over 173,000 Requests and Notifications via ECRIS. This equates to over 3,300 requests and notifications to and from the EU per week.

Europol

An agency that supports law enforcement authorities and facilitates cooperation between them by processing data and making links between crimes committed in different countries and providing access to law enforcement intelligence from other EU countries.

Should the UK Liaison Bureau be required to leave the Europol building, it will move to the British Embassy in The Hague. This will ensure that UK law enforcement can maintain to as great extent as possible operational relationships. Additionally, we are preparing to transition our operational cooperation with EU member States to bilateral and other non-EU alternative channels.

Statistics:

• The UK makes a significant contribution to Europol. In 2017/18, the UK was the second highest contributor to Europol Serios and Organised Crime Analysis Projects, making 11.8% of all contributions.
• We estimate that 600 UK investigations were facilitated or supported by Europol in 2017.
• During 2018, Europol funded 124 Operational meetings involving the UK, of which 23 were led by the UK. The total amount of funding from Europol for UK participation in the operational meetings was over €51,000.
• In 2018, the UK sent and received over 77,000 messages through Europol channels.
• At the end of April 2019, the UK was engaged in 48 Joint Investigation Teams with European partners.