Terrorism crackdown needs MPs to back more sharing of DNA profiles, says Theresa May

Mrs May said: "Recent events in Europe, particularly in Paris, have highlighted the very real need to cooperate with other countries in order to keep our citizens safe and to hunt down criminals and terrorists.

"Following those attacks in Paris we know that the French authorities have been cooperating and coordinating with a wide range of law enforcement agencies in other countries and we know that one of the tools they have found to be most effective in that has been the Prum mechanism - the subject of today's debate.

"Indeed it is thanks to Prum that they were able to identify at least one of the attackers so quickly."

The Home Secretary said signing up to Prum is "in the national interest".

The UK already shares data via Interpol but Prum means some of the process would be automated.

Mrs May said Prum would make it "quicker and easier" for UK police to check the national databases of other member states, increasing the reach of the UK's law enforcement.

However, she stressed signing up to Prum does not constitute the creation of a "centralised EU database".

Mrs May said that under Prum a hit on a DNA check can come back within 15 minutes and within 24 hours for a fingerprint check.

"With Interpol the same manual process means the average time to report a hit is more than four months," she said.

Meanwhile, vehicle registration details can be provided within 10 seconds.

Mrs May said: "That bears repeating: Our police would be able to get details of foreign registered vehicles in 10 seconds rather that the months it can take at the moment."

The UK previously opted out of the Prum Decisions.

However, Sir William Cash, Conservative MP for Stone, expressed concerns about opting into Prum.

"I'm sure you accept that the carnage in France, which was dreadful, was to some extent as a result of the failures of authorities in that country," he said.

"Why should we place so much trust in those who come from those kind of experiences?"

But Mrs May rejected the question.

"I have to say that the carnage that took place in France and the blame for that lies fairly and squarely with the terrorists who undertook that and I believe that it is absolutely right that we listen to those who have experience," she said.

Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, backed the move.

"It is not about giving information away in totality," he said.

"It's about sharing information because one of the lessons from Paris is the importance of EU countries knowing who is coming through the external borders."

Mrs May stressed there will be safeguards in place to make sure matches are accurate and insisted signing up to Prum is an "operational necessity".

"All of us want the most serious crimes such as rapes and murders to be solved and their perpetrators brought to justice," she said.

"In some cases that will mean the police comparing DNA or fingerprint data with those held by other European forces.

"Thirty per cent of those arrested in London are foreign nationals so it is clear that this is an operational necessity."

Mrs May said there could be 8,000 immediate matches when the UK fully signs up to the scheme.

She added: "That's up to 8,000 foreign criminals our police can track down for crimes they have committed in the UK and there will then be an ongoing daily process which will produce more hits.

"Such exchanges will become part of business as usual with the reach of our law enforcement extended across Europe at the touch of a button."

The Home Secretary insisted existing process are so "cumbersome and convoluted" that last year only 69 DNA profiles were passed abroad by the police, whereas in the pilot Prum scheme meant 14,000% more were sent this year.

She said Prum also means countries can check the EU database containing asylum seekers' finger prints, a process which allowed the Austrian authorities to identify eight of the 71 people found dead in the back of a lorry in August and one of the suspects in that case.

"With the unprecedented flows of migrants at the moment it is clear that the police would benefit from having this capability," Mrs May added.

The scheme has the support of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the National Crime Agency, the DNA Ethics Board and will be subject to an independent oversight board, she said.

Labour will support the measure as the security situation following the Paris attacks demands the Government takes all the action it can to protect the British public, shadow home secretary Andy Burnham said.

He said: "We have an obligation, all of us in this House, to consider every possible measure to protect the public.

"It seems to me that the case for greater data sharing and access to data held across Europe is now unanswerable and we have an obligation to support it.

"It is no exaggeration to say that our national security depends upon it."

Mr Burnham attacked Tory Eurosceptic rebels, led by Sir William, who have opposed Prum in an amendment and could vote against the Government.

The shadow home secretary said they were putting sovereignty over national security and warned Mrs May not to listen to the "siren voices", as she did two years ago when Britain opted out of Prum.

"The problem with the motion in the name of Sir Bill and others is simple - it invites the House to prioritise the civil liberties of British citizens and risks the UK sovereignty over and above risks to national security," Mr Burnham said.

"That is what the amendment to the main motion invites us to do.

"Of course our liberties and our sovereignty are important considerations but the safety of the public must come first, and indeed that is the primary duty of any government and it is why the Government is right not to listen to Sir Bill.

"The truth is that they got themselves into difficulty two years ago by listening to those siren voices and I hope members on the Government benches will not make the same mistake today."

Mr Burnham said: "We believe on these benches that the Government has reached the right decision, albeit in a roundabout way, but they do deserve our support this evening.

"And I hope they will agree with me that this whole issue and the way in which this point has been reached illustrates how our continued membership of the EU in fact enhances the security of our country in these difficult times.

"The Home Secretary has made a convincing and powerful case tonight to rejoin the Prum decision and she will have our support in taking an important step to catch more criminals and keep our country safe."

Eurosceptic Tory Sir Bill Cash (Stone) said the debate raised "troubling questions in respect of vital matters of policy and of principle and not only for the UK as a whole and our Parliament, but also our civil liberties and our common law".

He said: "First and foremost before reaching a decision on our participation in Prum we should weigh carefully the implications for our Parliamentary sovereignty from which all law should ultimately derive."

Sir Bill asked how assiduously the Government had considered alternative means of securing the benefits offered by Prum in way that would have been "less damaging" to Parliamentary sovereignty.

By participating in Prum he argued the UK would be compelled to accept the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), adding he questioned whether the national security of UK citizens would be advanced by "surrendering these powers to the European Court".

Sir Bill described the pilot scheme as "small scale" and questioned the extent to which the evidence was "sufficiently broad based to justify this extremely grave extension of powers to the ECJ".

He said: "This entire exercise represents the most massive u-turn in Government policy since 2013."

He added: "This is not a motion which should be passed for the reasons that I have given, it interferes with Parliamentary sovereignty, it extends the range of the European Court and the Prime Minister himself has made it clear that he does not want an extension of EU jurisdiction, indeed I think that the Home Secretary herself has said as much.

"This therefore is not a motion which stands, up we should not opt in to these proposals and as far as many of us are concerned this is a step too far."

SNP justice and home affairs spokesman Joanna Cherry QC said the Home Secretary had made a convincing and powerful case for participating in the Prum decisions.

She said: "It seems clear that the UK's participation in those decisions will give police forces across the UK accelerated access to millions of fingerprints, DNA profiles and car registration records held across Europe.

"And such police cooperation across Europe can only be a good thing, provided there are in-built safeguards respecting civil liberties and adherence to the highest scientific standards."

The SNP, she said, did not fear the jurisdiction of the court of justice of the EU, adding: "We believe that far from threatening the civil liberties of British citizens, the court of justice of the EU will ensure that they are upheld having regard to the charter of fundamental rights."

Keith Vaz, Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, raised concerns about border security in light of the Paris attacks.

He said: "I believe the decision of the Government will help us track people who leave this country and who end up in the European Union."

Mr Vaz said other European countries need to put the names of suspects on the relevant databases as "soon as they become people of interest".

Jacob Rees-Mogg, Tory MP for North East Somerset, spoke against the plans and said that signing up to Prum "needs to be seen in a whole package".

"What we are agreeing to today is that the investigatory function should be centralised to the European level - the investigatory function in relation to data held by governments," he said.

"We agreed a year ago that the arrest function should be centralised with a European competence.

"So we have investigation. We have arrest. We have a proposal from the European Commission for a European public prosecutor - so far resisted.

"But this was resisted a year ago, the European arrest warrant was not Conservative Party policy until a year ago.

"I wonder if you see where I am going to: That this is part of a package of creating a European criminal justice system."

Mr Rees-Mogg advocated sharing data on an inter-governmental basis so that the UK would be able to choose which countries it deals with.

"It is worrying that a Government that portrays itself in election campaigns, in propaganda, in statements, as Eurosceptic, whenever it comes to the details of what it is doing turns out to think the answer is more Europe," he said.

But Immigration Minister James Brokenshire insisted opting in to Prum is the best way forward.

"I believe that Prum will help us to protect the public while I also believe that we will do so in a way that is fully respectful of civil liberties," he said.

A Eurosceptic Tory backbench amendment seeking to derail the plans was defeated 503 votes to 26 - a majority of 477.

The main motion was approved unopposed.