Police cooperation and exchange of information under the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

Abstract

Brexit has led to a realignment of police cooperation and information exchange between the EU and the UK. This has been affected by Titles II-V and IX of Part III of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The terms governing the exchange of DNA, fingerprint and vehicle registration data, the transfer and processing of passenger name record data, cooperation on operational information, membership of Europol and the exchange of criminal record information are henceforth governed by that instrument. This article describes the changes and comments upon how future EU-UK police cooperation may be impacted.

European criminal cooperation: Confiscation and protection of human rights in the post Brexit period

“…The States must commit to broad support for identifying and tracing assets susceptible to confiscation that will respond to requests for information on bank accounts, safety deposit boxes and banking operations; as well as the performance of a control activity on these operations according to art. 658 and 660 (Arnell, Bock, Davies, Worner, 2021).…”

UK–EU law enforcement cooperation post-Brexit: A UK law enforcement practitioner perspective

“…In one of the few pieces of literature on post-Brexit police cooperation, Arnell et al (2021) analysed the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). They stated that Part Three, Title V, allows the UK access to most of the UK accesses to most Europol resources, usually reserved only for EU member states.…”

“…Therefore, the UK cannot make strategic and management-level decisions and guide the priorities of Europol as in the past (Hadfield et al, 2022). Part Three, Title V of the TCA also highlights Europol's institutional independence, where the UK and Europol will negotiate their future in how they cooperate bilaterally without the influence of other EU member states, being guided by strict EU data protection laws, which Arnell et al (2021) argued is beneficial for both the UK and EU.…”

“…In addition to data protection discussions, Arnell et al (2021) drew attention to Art LAW.EUROPOL.49(1), where they believe that personal data protection is the core element of police forces sharing data between the UK and EU. The UK has maintained access to European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS), where EU member states share criminal record information.…”

“…However, the UK has lost access to information on the criminal records of third-country nationals under Part Three, Title IX of the TCA. Arnell et al (2021) believe this will threaten UK security in the fight against terrorism and organised crime (OC).…”