Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what mitigating methods he has planned to provide continuous access to the (a) SIS II database and (b) ECRIS for UK law enforcement and border force agencies in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

My Department continues to work closely with operational partners and engage with EU Member States to prepare for our departure from the EU in October. If necessary, we will be ready to transition our cooperation with EU Member States to alternative, non-EU arrangements where available. Broadly speaking, this would mean making more use of Interpol, Council of Europe instruments and other forms of co-operation with European partners, such as bilateral channels. In a no deal scenario requests for criminal records information would be facilitated under the 1959 Council of Europe Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance. The 1959 Convention is already used as the basis for exchange with a number of other countries.

As regards SIS II, we will be able to continue to cooperate through pre-existing bilateral channels or Interpol, as was the case before 2015 when the UK connected to SIS II.Whilst these alternative arrangements are not like-for-like replacements, they are tried and tested mechanisms that we already use for cooperating with many non-EU countries. The UK will continue to be one of the safest countries in the world in the event of no deal.