SIS II alerts are made available to the police through the Police National Computer (PNC) and to Border Force officers at the immigration controls at the UK ports of entry.
The Second Generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) is a database of ‘real time’ alerts about individuals and objects of interest to EU law enforcement agencies. SIS II contains information on 35,000 people wanted under an EAW, as well as alerts on suspected foreign fighters, missing people, and alerts on people and objects of interest to EU law enforcement agencies
The UK connected to SIS II in April 2015.
Between then and 31 March 2016 over 6,400 foreign alerts received hits in the UK, allowing UK enforcement agencies to take appropriate action, whilst over 6,600 UK-issued alerts received hits across Europe. There are almost 70,000 alerts in SIS II for ‘discreet or specific checks’
on people across the EU – this includes alerts which support law enforcement tracking the movement around Europe of people convicted or suspected of serious and organised crime,including people convicted of sexual or violent offences*.
SISII enables participating countries to share and receive law enforcement alerts in real time for:
-Persons wanted for arrest for extradition purposes, for which a warrant has been issued (Article 26);
-Missing persons who need to be placed under police protection or in a place of safety, including minors and adults not at risk (Article 32);
-Witnesses, absconders, or subjects of criminal judgements to appear before the judicial authorities (Article 34);
-People or vehicles requiring specific checks or discreet surveillance (Article 36);
-Objects that are misappropriated, lost, stolen and which may be sought for the purposes of seizure or for use as evidence (e.g. firearms, passports etc) (Article 38).
SIRENE Bureaux are set up in all SISII participating countries, to provide supplementary information on alerts and coordinate activities in relation to alerts in SISII. In the UK’s case this will be managed by the National Crime Agency. SIRENE stands for Supplementary Information Request at the National Entry**.
SIRENE Bureaux in SISII countries use different forms to communicate with each other. Officers complete these forms via the PNC. The following forms are most relevant to UK :
– A Form (Supplementary information) – includes supplementary information that needs to be supplied with an Article 26 alert (offence details and other information from the warrant).
– F Form (Flagging) – used to request a flag (see flagging).
– G Form (Hit on an alert) – includes all the relevant information required following a hit on an alert.
– H Form (Unable to carry out action) – includes all the relevant information required to inform another member state that the alert was matched in this country but the action was not able to be carried out.
– M Form (Miscellaneous information) – used to send information not covered by any other form. This form can also be used to request that an alert is geographically targeted.
– P Form (Further information required following vehicle recovery) – deals with the exchange of owner/keeper and insurance details following the recovery of a stolen vehicle.
– Q Form (Misused identity) – used to circulate information to the SIRENE Bureau that a person is the victim of misused identity***.