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A former national security adviser warned that the British would be “less safe” in the event of a no-deal Brexit, as the UK will lose real-time access to a number of European crime databases that cannot be easily replaced.
Lord Ricketts said that British police face “a serious capacity gap” since the end of the year, unless the EU and the UK can reach a trade and security agreement because “the rollbacks are all slower and more clumsy.”
Without a deal, he said, Britain will definitely lose access to the Schengen database containing information on who is wanted or missing in the EU, replacing it with an Interpol system that is not integrated into the UK police or border systems. .
British search notices must be manually entered into Interpol’s system as part of an effort that has required 60 additional law enforcement personnel and which police acknowledged last month “will have a significant operational impact” on the investigations.
“Solutions for accessing databases would require more time and effort. And in this business, speed equals security, so the loss of real-time connectivity makes us all less secure, ”added Ricketts, who is now a multi-level partner.
The UK wants to ensure access to the Schengen system, which has information on nearly a million people, as part of the general post-Brexit deal. While security is not seen as a sticking point in the negotiations, the EU has refused to sign a separate security agreement if trade talks fail.
A no-deal contingency deal outlined by Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, on Thursday made no reference to security, prompting a former senior Whitehall official to claim that Brussels was using the issue “as a point. pressure “.
UK police have been struggling to introduce a patchwork of measures to deal with loss of access to other databases as uncertainty continues, including the Passenger Name Records (PNR) system, which tracks passengers. trip details, and Prüm, which contains DNA and fingerprint records. .
They admit that there is no complete alternative to either. Last month, Martin Hewitt, chairman of the National Police Chiefs Council, warned that losing Prüm would mean that “the UK would have to manually re-exchange data through Interpol channels on a case-by-case basis.”
Prüm is relatively new, with the UK connected since July 2019, but it is quickly proving its worth, Hewitt added. British officials have already made 12,000 DNA matches with data held by 11 countries also linked to the system.
Earlier in the Commons, Rachel Reeves, Labor Brexit spokesperson, said the government had been “unable to tell us how border officers and police would access security data” without any agreement.
He asked Penny Mordaunt, the general payer, to assure him that “the security of the British people will not be undermined in any way” if Boris Johnson fails to reach an agreement with Brussels.
“I do not believe that any European member state wishes to affect or compromise the security of its own citizens,” Mordaunt responded, adding that in the event of no agreement: “We have measures to ensure that our citizens will be safe.” . “
Home Office officials said that regaining sovereign control over the UK’s borders would bring other security benefits, as customs control of products would help target guns and drugs.
Ending free movement would also allow Britain to bar entry of criminals sentenced to more than one year if the information were made available to border forces personnel at UK ports of entry.
