Less than 350 HOURS now from full-flavour Brexit. Here are the facts about how the UK will crash out of a host of security, criminal justice and crime-fighting tools keeping you safe. Police will lose lose many of these even if there is a deal: bbc.co.uk/news/explainer…
The UK will be ejected from the European Arrest Warrant (although it does have its critics); it will have a totally unclear relationship with Europol and its joined-up cross-border organised crime investigations.
SIS 2 - jargon name for a massively important database providing millions of insta-alerts to frontline policing and border security: Criminal on the run in Europe? Possibly in the UK? SIS 2 sends the alert. Home Office has no choice but to unplug the UK's connection.
Another database with a foreign name - Prüm: It connects DNA records held by police. Got a sample from a crime scene in the UK? Possibly someone who's been arrested elsewhere in Europe? Prüm does the matchy-matchy. UK police lose automated access.
European Investigation Orders. Police in the UK can send a request to another country's police for help on a job. The receiving officers *must assist within a deadline* unless there's an exceptional reason not to. The position from Jan? A diplomatic begging letter, no guarantees.
This morning, Steve Rodhouse, one of the top bods at the National Crime Agency underlined the loss of capability that comes from the SIS 2 switch-off. The UK, overnight, will have to delete 40,000 EU records currently sitting in the UK's Police National Computer.
He says investigations will take longer and serious criminals will not be held to account "as quickly". The UK is pinning its hopes on Interpol's system filling the SIS gap.
But this is what Steve Rodhouse said this morning: “It is right for me to raise the prospect that there will be some EU member states in some circumstances who don’t use Interpol alerts... If the UK doesn’t have access to SIS 2 that provides a gap."
Last week, someone well-positioned on these matters inside British policing gave me their analysis and predictions about losing these security and criminal justice tools. Their first response began "We are [insert expletive]."
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC last Sunday that UK security would improve after Brexit - but he also said the UK still wanted access to some of these EU tools as part of “common sense co-operation”.
“The big win for us is control over our own borders,” said Mr Raab. “If you look at denial of entry, if you look at deportation powers, if you look at control of our borders, in that respect, we will have far more control, and that will have a security dividend.”
There is a livestream of the undercover policing inquiry here - but it is virtually unusable for reporters trying to follow it remotely. The words are appearing via a fast scrolling video feed that can't be paused or rewound: ucpi.org.uk/hearing/eviden…
1) I can't type that fast to copy down everything. If I could hear the audio - which we are not allowed to do - I could take down quotes in shorthand. 2) We cannot scroll back to check quotes. 20 years ago at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, we could do that.
3) If I were to screen-shot key quotes (to transcribe for a report) I would then miss the next five minutes. And given I can't hear the evidence, I can't say whether we would miss something important.
Court of Appeal to report The Sun for potential Contempt of Court, after an apparent leak of the judgment in the Shamima Begum case.
Whitehall investigation continuing into who in government saw or knew of the result, which went against the Home Secretary.
The judgment, a fortnight ago from the Court of Appeal, ruled that Ms Begum should be allowed to return London from a Syrian refugee camp to fight for the return of her citizenship. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-534271…
The Sun got a leak of the judgment before it was handed down in court - their story suggested it came from government sources. The head of the Government Legal Department, Treasury Solicitor @PermSecGLD has been investigating who knew what and when in the Home Office or elsewhere
... And today's utterly bizarre story from the world of semi-secret court hearings is....
Two MI6 officers accused of interfering with an independent tribunal by telephoning its secretary to say that she mustn't let one of the UK's top judges see top secret documents...
... the incident happened in March last year and has only been disclosed today at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. That's the semi-secret body that hears and rules on complaints against intelligence agencies. This is what happened:
The IPT was preparing evidence, mostly secret documents, in a big case about whether spying agencies can authorise their informants to commit crimes. (I didn't say this was simple).
Some mop-up thoughts from yesterday's violence in London and answers to a few Qs in my timeline. I have ignored the ones from those who can't edit out the f word or other abuse from their comments. Thread:
1) Some people say there were Nazi salutes & we have not reported these. I didn't see Nazi salutes. I saw football lads raising their arms while chanting, in a way that it commonly scene at footy matches. If that is what people are referring to, they're not Nazi salutes.
2) Some people say we're tarnishing the name of football supporters. Well, speaking as a born and bred supporter of the once and soon to be mighty again Nottingham Forest, I don't think so. But a football-firm linked outfit, the DFLA were key organisers yesterday.
*IMPORTANT NEW GUIDANCE* from @PoliceChiefs in England & Wales who now have powers to enforce social distancing.
Here are the rules on what you can do outdoors - and how you could be fined.
These come after days of public confusion over the message from government.
THREAD:
1. The role of the police is to step in if people disregard their civic duty to stop mingling. Gathering together spreads the coronavirus - and that means the NHS will be overwhelmed.
2. But government experts say people still need to exercise for the good of their physical and mental health. So the police have a difficult job in enforcing the new rules. The NPCC says "use your common sense" when considering if you need to go out - and how you go about it.
Boris Johnson Coronavirus update: "This is the worst public health crisis in a generation... I must level with you - many more families are going to lose loved ones before their time... But we have a clear plan."
Seeking to stretch the peak of the disease over longer period to minimise strain on health services. "The most dangerous period is not now, but some weeks today."
From tomorrow if you have even the mildest of symptoms, you must stay at home for seven days. In coming weeks, if someone in household has symptoms, we will ask everyone in that household to stay at home.