New law will allow EU police to run surveillance in Britain

Police officers from other European Union countries are to be allowed to operate in Britain under laws announced yesterday.

The measures in the Crime (International Co-operation) Bill will permit foreign police and customs officers to run surveillance operations in Britain, without the involvement of British police.

They will be allowed to operate independently for five hours, and will then be expected to work alongside their British counterparts.

Lord Filkin, the Home Office minister, said the new arrangement was designed to help foreign police track suspects who were fleeing to Britain from abroad. The officers would not be allowed to snoop on UK residents and would have to surrender their weapons on entering Britain.

He said it was in Britain's interests to allow foreign officers to continue their pursuit rather than having dangerous criminals or other suspected offenders going to ground. "The last thing any of us wants is that we lose track of them when they come into the UK," Lord Filkin said.

The minister said the agreement would allow British police officers to track suspects who left the country for other European Union states. "There have been a number of cases in Britain where people have been under observation [and] they then get to Dover, at which point it's very difficult for Kent Police to know whether they are going to France, Belgium or Germany," he said.

But the new agreement will not allow British police to pursue suspects into the Republic of Ireland, because the Irish government has chosen not to sign up to the arrangements.

Home Office officials said Ireland had declined to change its existing arrangements with British police because of the special "sensitivities" of the Irish border.

The foreign officers in Britain, who are likely to be in plain clothes, will be protected from assault by the same laws that cover attacks on British police officers.

They will not be liable for any damages incurred by British citizens as a result of their actions; costs will be met initially out of the budget of Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service.

Lord Filkin said: "We would expect European colleagues to abide by [British] laws."

The foreign officers would not have powers of arrest or be allowed to enter private premises. Foreign intelligence services will not be permitted to operate under the new arrangements.

The Bill also allows British courts to deal with cases of terrorism carried out overseas by British residents or which target British interests. The list of terror offences that could be heard by the British courts ranges from wilful fire-raising and malicious mischief to murder and kidnapping.

The Bill will also allow the judicial authorities in Britain to allow prosecutors from other EU countries to gain access to the British bank accounts of individuals who are under investigation. But the Bill will not apply to Gibraltar, which retains an exemption from such searches.