Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will take steps to seal an agreement with Ireland on introducing equivalent Schengen criminal justice provisions between the UK and Ireland after the UK leaves the EU; and if she will make a statement.

The UK will in due course be leaving the EU but the importance of law enforcement co-operation with our EU and global allies, including Ireland, has not changed.

We are exploring options for cooperation arrangements once the UK has left the EU but it is too early to speculate at this stage what future arrangements may look like.

We will do what is necessary to keep people safe, but it would be wrong to set out unilateral positions on specific measures in advance of negotiations.

The Government has been clear it would not be right to provide a running commentary on negotiations.