Brussels Terrorist Attacks Debate

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Department: Home Office

Brussels Terrorist Attacks

Lucy Frazer Excerpts
Wednesday 23rd March 2016

(8 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Theresa May Portrait Mrs May
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I think there is absolute unanimity around this House in our condemnation of these terrible attacks. There are two elements to the upgrade of the Metropolitan police’s armed response. I think that the 600 figure to which the right hon. Gentleman refers is not the recruitment of new firearms officers but the training of existing officers in certain parts of the Metropolitan police. As I understand it, that training is under way. The uplift in armed response vehicles across the country, which I referred to earlier, is also under way.

Lucy Frazer Portrait Lucy Frazer (South East Cambridgeshire) (Con)
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The events yesterday underlined the fact that this is an international threat that requires an international response. We are making every effort to strengthen our domestic capability in the Investigatory Powers Bill. Will the Home Secretary assure the House that, in talking to international partners, she will ensure that the Bill can be practically and swiftly enforced elsewhere?

Theresa May Portrait Mrs May
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I am very happy to give my hon. Friend that reassurance. One key issue in the Bill is the ability to issue lawful warrants against communication and internet service providers who are located elsewhere, in particular the United States of America. We continue in the Bill to assert the territorial jurisdiction that we and previous Governments have always asserted in relation to those powers, and we are discussing with the US Government the possibility of an agreement that will ensure a very solid basis on which such exchange of information can take place.