Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assistance his Department has (a) requested and (b) received from the European Counter-Terrorism Centre on apprehending foreign fighters.

The Government values the role of Europol in helping law enforcement agencies coordinate investigations into serious and organised cross border crime and terrorism. That includes the European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC) which was set up in 2016 as an operations centre and hub of expertise for EU Member States at Europol. Since September 2017 the UK has embedded UK Police Officers within the ECTC and works closely with our European partners through the centre.

Information exchange between UK authorities and Europol is well-established and takes place on a daily and routine basis on a wide range of criminal activity. This includes information sharing to tackle the threat of terrorism and cooperation continues to assist UK efforts to tackle cross-border terrorist activity impacting on the UK.

We cannot comment specifically on the assistance that the Department has requested and received from the ECTC as this is operationally sensitive information.