Responding to news that the UK failed to pass on the details of 75,000 convictions of foreign criminals to their home EU countries and tried to conceal the scandal, Christine Jardine MP, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson, said: “UK police rely on EU-wide data-sharing systems to identify criminals and keep us safe. For the Home Office to fail so badly to live up to its side of that agreement is shameful.
“The Home Office has serious questions to answer over this. Not just the failure to pass on details of convicted criminals to other EU countries, but the cover up afterwards as well.
“Ministers must also tell us how this affects negotiations for a future security partnership with the EU. We urgently need a deal that protects access to these databases for our police, but this scandal doesn’t inspire confidence that they will achieve one.”