European police to get access to UK records

THE INDEPENDENT - WESLEY JOHNSON

European police will be able to insist that Britons are put under surveillance and gain access to their DNA after the UK opted into controversial plans to strengthen co-operation.

Theresa May, Home Secretary, said the European Investigation Order (EIO) will "allow us to fight crime and deliver justice more effectively". But campaigners said it would give European police "free rein" to spy on Britons and could lead to disproportionate requests, with demands for the DNA of British tourists if there was a serious crime in a resort they had visited.

Jago Russell, chief executive of the campaign group Fair Trials International (FTI), said: "Police time could be wasted with dealing with unreasonable demands for evidence and the cost to our privacy could be enormous. Police officers from Portugal to Poland would have free rein to demand recordings of our private conversations, copies of our bank statements and even our DNA."