Westminster report praises Brexit deal for maintaining Northern Ireland cross-border security
A new Westminster report has praised the government’s Brexit trade deal for “putting to rest” concerns about cross-border safety in Northern Ireland.
The report, from parliament’s Northern Ireland Affairs Committee said the deal “mitigated concerns about extradition processes and intelligence blind spots”.
The UK-EU trade deal ensured “the need for strong cooperation between national police and judicial authorities”, however the UK did lose access to EU security databases.
The committee’s report was launched by the committee last year to scrutinise the effects of a no-deal Brexit on security and co-operation in the island of Ireland.
The committee found the deal struck by Boris Johnson “answered our core concerns on extradition and data sharing”.
Committee chair Simon Hoare said: “There had been fears that extradition processes could have created new opportunities for criminals, with intelligence sharing gaps appearing due to inadequate processes. We’re now confident that policing and justice will continue to be delivered quickly and effectively. Importantly, extradition decisions will remain in the hands of judicial authorities.
“It’s clear that the UK government and the European Union are both treating the matter with the seriousness that it deserves.”
Professor Katy Hayward, senior fellow at the UK in a Changing Europe think tank, said the trade deal was “very important for the quality of policing and criminal justice cooperation that benefits UK citizens”.
“However, as this report shows, this is not the same level of cooperation and reciprocity enjoyed heretofore and the UK needs to prepare now for the gaps that will appear over time,” she said.
“This is another area in which sustaining a good relationship with its nearest neighbour, Ireland, is very much for mutual and practical benefit.”
It comes just weeks after Belfast was hit by days of rioting and violence started by a small section of Northern Ireland’s unionist community.
Experts said long simmering sectarian tensions, combined with social deprivation in some communities, were at the root of the riots and that the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement’s Northern Ireland Protocol effectively lit a match on the situation.
The protocol sees Northern Ireland follow the EU’s customs union and single market rules, unlike the rest of the UK, placing a so-called border in the Irish sea.
This separation from the rest of the UK has infuriated some parts of the unionist community.