This House of Lords Library Briefing provides an overview of current UK-EU cooperation on security and justice, as well as a summary proposals by the UK and EU for cooperation in this area once the UK has left the EU.
Proposed UK-EU Security Treaty (314 KB , PDF)
As a member state of the European Union (EU), the UK participates in a variety of EU policing and criminal justice tools which enable data sharing and collaboration between members.
In September 2017, the UK published a document in which it stated that it would aim to negotiate a treaty between the UK and the EU providing a legal basis for continued cooperation on security. The Government stated that it is in the interest of the UK and the EU to sustain “the closest possible cooperation” in this area, and argued that the existing close working should provide a basis for an unprecedented level of cooperation between the EU and a third country. In a further paper published in May 2018, the Government restated these aims, and advocated establishing regular institutional engagement between the EU and UK in the area of security.
The European Council has stated that the EU is willing to establish a security partnership covering effective exchanges of information, support for operational cooperation between law enforcement authorities and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. However, the European Commission has stated that the EU’s interests must be protected, a non-member state cannot have the same rights as a member state, there must be a balance of rights and obligations and the EU must continue to have autonomy in making decisions.
Many EU justice and home affairs tools involve the transfer of data between parties. At present this is enabled by the UK’s membership of the EU and compliance with its data protection legislation. Once the UK leaves the EU, one option would be for it to pursue an ‘adequacy decision’, determining its data protection laws are essentially equivalent to those of the EU. However, it has been noted that a consequence of this would be that the UK would have to comply with standards it had not had a role in setting.
On 2 March 2018, the House of Lords European Union Home Affairs Sub-Committee announced it would be undertaking an inquiry into the proposed UK-EU security treaty.
Proposed UK-EU Security Treaty (314 KB , PDF)
This bill aims to make it illegal to create or solicit sexually explicit or intimate images without the consent of the people in them. This would include deepfake content, where photos or video are digitally manipulated to make a person appear to be in an intimate situation. The government has said that banning the creation of non-consensual explicit deepfake content is a priority.
![Non-Consensual Sexually Explicit Images and Videos (Offences) Bill [HL]: HL Bill 26 of 2024–25](https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/Security-VIGs-568x426.jpg)
The House of Lords European Affairs Committee welcomed the EU and UK response to the war in Ukraine “in general terms”. In its January 2024 report, the committee said some areas of UK-EU cooperation had been broadly effective. The committee said the report’s aim was to consider a longer-term approach and make recommendations to strengthen the UK-EU response. It called for more formal arrangements in several security and foreign policy areas.
Current and recent governments agree that the rule of law is a fundamental British value. However, the House of Lords Constitution Committee and legal sector organisations have raised concerns that the rule of law has been eroded. Law officers in the Labour government have committed to uphold and promote the rule of law.
