Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 30 January 2026 to Question UIN 109867, whether her department has made any assessment of the need to raise recommendations with Interpol on its obligations under Article 2 of the Interpol charter.

Any misuse of INTERPOL tools, including Red Notices, is taken very seriously by this Government.

The UK continues to support INTERPOL’s efforts to ensure systems are in place to protect individuals’ rights and uphold Article 3 of INTERPOL’s Constitution, which forbids the organisation to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character, as well as Article 2 of INTERPOL’s Constitution, which ensures and promotes the widest possible mutual assistance between all criminal police authorities in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

INTERPOL’s safeguards operate at two stages: pre-publication via the Notices and Diffusions Task Force (NDTF) and post-publication via an independent statutory body of INTERPOL the Commission for the Control of Files (CCF). The UK has previously seconded lawyers and an analyst to the NDTF and currently maintains other secondees within INTERPOL.

The NCA uploads INTERPOL Notices and Diffusions that are circulated to the UK onto the Police National Computer and Border Systems. This is typically done within 24 hours and for the purpose of providing UK law enforcement with information required to protect the public at the earliest opportunity. Enquiries are then undertaken by the NCA to identify if the individual circulated has a footprint in the UK. Any cases where a potential UK lead is identified are then prioritised for action.

Home Office and NCA officials actively engage with INTERPOL through formal structures such as the Committee on Governance group, and via informal meetings, to explore ways to further strengthen measures to tackle abuse of INTERPOL systems by hostile states. This includes ongoing work to amend the INTERPOL Constitution. The Government will not hesitate to recommend further reforms to INTERPOL as necessary.