In spite that the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson failed to stop a bill blocking no-deal Brexit from going through and then lost a vote on whether to hold an early election, a no-deal Brexit is still possible.

If on October 31, the UK crashes out of the European Union without an agreement, the country would then lose the right to use several EU security systems, including the European Arrest Warrant and the Europe-wide Schengen Information System (SIS II), which means the UK would lose access to millions of pieces of information on criminals.

The UK police, which currently searches the SIS II automatically, checked the system 603 million times last year. However, a no-deal Brexit would see the UK law enforcement agencies lose access to the SIS II, and fall back on an alternative Interpol system, the I-24/7 database.

The UK would go from having up to 79 million pieces of information on criminals, terrorists and missing people to “hundreds of thousands”.

Moreover, since not all EU member states upload “red notices” on wanted suspects to the I-24/7 database the alerts do not give British police the power to arrest internationally wanted murderers, rapists and other criminals on sight.

According to the UK deputy assistant commissioner and head of the new International Crime Coordination Centre Richard Martin, losing access to the EU security systems is one of the biggest challenges for the UK law enforcement post-Brexit.

Martin, who is also the national police lead for Brexit, explains that UK police leaders have been in discussions with the Home Office for the drafting of a legislation that would introduce a power of arrest for Interpol red notices from EU member states.

“My understanding is it won’t be in before 31 October but they’re hoping to get it into the next session [of parliament],” he explains.

UK Illegally Copied SIS Data

Last year, the EUobserver had reported on a classified 29-page report on the violations of the British authorities regarding the Schengen Information System.

According to the document that was compiled by the EU Commission, and Schengen experts from the EU countries, the UK, which opted out from joining the Schengen area but has some access to the SIS since 2015, committed violations that “constitute serious and immediate risks to the integrity and security of SIS data as well as for the data subjects.”

At the end of July, the European Commissioner for Security Julian King, during a talk to journalists, indirectly confirmed, not only that the United Kingdom did make illegal copies of classified information from the database of the Schengen Information System (SIS), but he also said that the UK is already taking “practical steps” to correct its mistake.

“Those are meant to be confidential discussions that we have with the individual member states,” Commissioner King said when asked to comment on the issue, yet adding that the country in question had since taken a series of what he described as “practical steps” to address the issue. He however, did not mention that the country in question is the UK.

UK’s Current Access to SIS II

The Schengen Information System functions as a basis for cooperation in law enforcement and protection of the external borders of the area, by providing alert information for police, migration, justice and other authorities regarding missing people, criminal entities associated with crimes, as well as about forbidden people to enter and stay in the Schengen Area.

The UK connected into SIS II on April 13, 2015. As the country is not a Schengen Member State, it only participates in the law enforcement aspects.

The Home Office is the body responsible to provide the central infrastructure for the implementation of SIS II within the UK. Yet, UK law enforcement agencies are each individually responsible as data controllers for compliance with data protection legislation for their processing of SIS II personal data.

UK SIS II alerts are created by UK law enforcement agencies using information obtained from existing national policing information systems such as the Police National Computer. UK SIS II alerts are made available to all SIS II participating countries.