Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that the effectiveness of anti-terror (a) legislation and (b) policies, including financial sanctions will be maintained after the UK leaves the EU.

The Government’s future partnership paper on security, law enforcement and criminal justice published on 18 September 2017 set out how the UK is seeking a future relationship with the EU and its Member States that provides for practical operational cooperation; facilitates data driven law enforcement; and supports multilateral cooperation through EU agencies.

We continue to value our cooperation and information sharing through measures such as the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), Europol, the European Criminal Record Information System (ECRIS) and the Schengen Information System (SIS II) in our efforts to fight cross-border crime and terrorism.

The Government’s counter-terrorism legislation and policies will continue to remain comprehensive and effective following the UK’s exit from the EU.

The Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill is progressing through the House of Commons. The Bill provides the UK with the ability to make a variety of sanctions regimes, including for complying with a UN obligation. The Bill will also give the UK powers to create UK autonomous sanctions regimes. The Prime Minister has said that we will look to carry over all EU sanctions at the time of our departure, and we will all be stronger if the UK and EU have the means to co-operate on sanctions now, and potentially to develop them together in the future.