Source · Select Committees · Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
Recommendation 12
12
Acknowledged
Paragraph: 87
The PSNI and the Gardaí have developed bilateral mechanisms for sharing operational policing information.
Recommendation
The PSNI and the Gardaí have developed bilateral mechanisms for sharing operational policing information. The Trade and Co-operation Agreement does not appear to impede the continuing exchange of operational information between UK and Irish law enforcement agencies, but both countries should be ambitious and build on the arrangements already in place. The Government must set out how it plans to support the development of existing bilateral mechanisms for the exchange of operational policing information between UK and Irish law enforcement agencies in line with technological advances to ensure that operational information exchange is as efficient as possible.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government acknowledges excellent existing bilateral cooperation with Ireland on law enforcement and criminal justice issues, stating it will continue to consider ways to strengthen this and build on strong relationships.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
87
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government · verbatim extract
Acknowledged
We have excellent bilateral cooperation with Member States across the EU – including Ireland - on a wide range of law enforcement and criminal justice issues and we will continue to consider ways to strengthen this. The Government takes a pragmatic and proactive approach to ensuring effective law enforcement and criminal justice cooperation between Northern Ireland and Ireland and this will continue. Ireland is, and will remain, a vital partner for the UK. As the Committee’s report notes, the law enforcement and criminal justice provisions in the TCA also provide an additional basis for bilateral cooperation to continue between the UK and EU Member States. This includes information sharing in response to requests, as well as on a spontaneous basis, such as information on wanted and missing persons and objects. We will continue to build on the strong existing relationships with our colleagues in Ireland when considering ways to tackle crime and keep our citizens safe. Criminal record data The Government must work with the Irish Government to ensure that criminal record data requested for the purposes of criminal proceedings continues to be exchanged as quickly as possible between UK and Irish law enforcement agencies, aiming for the shorter time limits as set out when using ECRIS rather than the 20-day time limit set out in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement; and reporting on its performance against those limits.
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