Failure to agree data sharing deal post-Brexit could threaten public safety - report

A failure to reach agreement on data sharing after Brexit could threaten public safety, a former chief of the London's Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday.

Lord Paul Condon was speaking after the publication of a House of Lords sub-committee report which said disruption to data sharing could harm cooperation on law enforcement.

Condon, a member of the committee, called for a transitional arrangement to maintain relationships with relevant agencies across the EU.

"There is a danger that from the end of March 2019, unless our government gets its act together on this issue, it will be much much harder to check those databases and therefore our citizens could be less safe," he told the BBC.

Britain is due to exit the EU on March 29, 2019 after voting to leave in last June's referendum.

Condon also said the UK's insistence that it would not acknowledge rulings from the European Court of Justice after Brexit was the largest “legal impediment" to a transitional deal on data sharing.

The committee's chairman Lord Jay also expressed concern over the lack of detail in the government's plans.

"The volume of data stored electronically and moving across borders has grown hugely over the last 20 years," he said.

"Between 2005 and 2012 alone, internet traffic across borders increased 18-fold. The maintenance of unhindered data flows is therefore crucial, both for business and for effective police co-operation."

"Without a transitional arrangement, the lack of tried and tested fall-back options for data-sharing in the area of law enforcement would raise concerns about the UK's ability to maintain deep police and security cooperation with the EU and its Member States in the immediate aftermath of Brexit."

He added that the committee was also concerned by the risk that EU and UK data protection rules could diverge over time when the UK has left the EU.

To avoid this, the committee urged the government to secure a continuing role for the Information Commissioner’s Office on the European Data Protection Board.