By Ben Kerrigan-
Home secretary Sajid Javid has admitted there would be a change in the UK’s security capabilities when Britain leaves the EU.
The cabinet minister’s remarks come after the head of the criminal records office, Rob Price, told The Independent that dangerous criminals could go free in Britain after it leaves the EU if police officers are unable to access European conviction records. Access to European Conviction records will almost certainly be a thing of the past under a Brexit with no deal, raising serious concerns about such an arrangement.
The Home Secretary was speaking on the BBC with comments from the former national security adviser Lord Rickets, who has previously said a no-deal Brexit would be a “really serious and immediate problem for British national security”.
Responding to the remarks, Mr Javid admitted it is “absolutely true” that “certain capabilities” will change under a disorderly exit from the bloc. He added: “Databases, arrest warrant, others that will change. Of course that will change. And keeping that in mind, we have been working on meeting it, and I’m not pretending for a second, through Interpol or through the Council of Europe on extradition, you can have like-for like-capability. So there will be a change in capability.”
Asked whether the country would be “less safe”, Mr Javid noted that most of the mechanisms applied to the UK from 2015, but continued: “I’m absolutely certain as home secretary, this is my most important job, is to do everything I can to keep this country safe.
“I’m absolutely confident that we will continue to be one of the safest countries in the world, even in a no-deal scenario.”
Responding to Mr Javid’s remarks, the Labour MP David Lammy said: “If we crash with no deal, we will fall out of the EU’s crime-fighting agencies, be denied access to shared criminal records databases, and lose our right to use the European Arrest Warrant”. If that is the case, this is an area that needs to be properly examined before we crash out since it would leave British people more vulnerable to dangerous criminals from The EU.