Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what steps his Department is taking to engage with the governments of other EU member states to agree future cooperation on security policy after the UK has left the EU.

In our future partnership papers, we set out the UK’s unconditional commitment to continue to cooperate with the EU on security - covering all aspects of our security relationship with the EU from foreign and defence policy, to law enforcement and criminal judicial cooperation. The scale and complexity of the common threats we face today will not change after we have left the EU, and it is important that we continue to engage with our European partners throughout the exit process and beyond.

Of course, the exact nature of our future relationship with the EU will be a matter for the negotiations. However, we are working closely with Member States and our partners in the EU institutions to ensure a common understanding of the threats we face and how best we can continue to cooperate in this important area. Ministers and senior officials from across Government have been engaging extensively across all other 27 Member States. We continue to welcome ministers from across Europe to the UK on a regular basis. This engagement will continue to be an important part of our work as we develop a deep and special partnership with the EU. We are clear that we want the EU to succeed: a successful EU, with the UK as its closest partner, is in all of our shared interests.