Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he has taken to ensure the development of co-operation with Spain on tackling serious crime in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters.

Responsibility for law enforcement in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters lies with Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar. The UK worked in close consultation with both the Government of Gibraltar and the Government of Spain to reach an agreement on 28 August on stepping up law enforcement cooperation. We have since raised this issue with the Spanish authorities at various levels; I raised the matter most recently with the Spanish Minister for Europe, Fernando Eguidazu, on 12 September.