Sorry you had to go through that flustered, particularly as you finished the SoR quite a few months ago. It sounds like you still have some sort of flag on your passport. As you don’t have to notify travel anymore it unfortunately sounds more like an Interpol Green Notice than an article 36 Schengen information system alert.

My suggestion is to speak to whoever was your contact at PPU (the people who visited you when you were on the register). If you have their email address you could send something along the following lines:

Dear xxx,

As I finished my notification requirements in February 2019 I would like to clarify an aspect following a trip to a Schengen area country a few weeks ago where I was questioned about my history following my passport being flagged at immigration.

As per Article 5 of the Charter of Fundamental rights of the European Union, Principle 5 of the Data Protection Act (1988) and Section 2.9 of the European Commission’s Implementing Decision 2015/219, can you please confirm that any and all Schengen Information System Article 36 travel alerts and Interpol Green Notices are deleted from the PNC and any associated databases such as the Home Office watchlist and Schengen Information System without delay.

That should work.

As we're still in the EU, and so is Greece, there should be no Interpol green notice. There might well still be a reference on SIS that should have been removed but hasn't been.

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

Agreed - it is in those police manuals that have been linked here before, that Interpol notices are only issued (if at all, as it's discretionary) to non-EU, non-Schengen travel, and there should be no Interpol notice if you never travelled outside the EU or Schengen while on the register.

It's disheartening to read your passport flagged, as I have read other stories where people have travelled days after finishing notifying, with no problems. Hopefully it's just a case of "forgetting" to delete the data from SIS and will be resolved. It would be great if you could let us know what happens as a number of people on here are anticipating the end of notification, thanks!

I think I might have to do write something similar as based on past experience noone will hurry to change anything. I looked at what you quoted but couldn't see the relevance of Article 5 of the Charter of Fundamantal Rights -  which is 'slavery and forced labour' - assume you mistyped the number? I'll be travelling within 2 weeks of my end date so that'll be my first test. I've had 2 x 2 very awkward and distressing times going in and out of France and Norway since I started this thread and just want to see an end to it all, it is getting me down now I'm retired and want to travel as much as possible while i'm still well enough to. As I'm a bit paranoid about these matters, what can I do if I continue to be stopped entering and exiting other EU countries and still get questioned on my return?

I'd think the first thing to do would be to contact your local police contact and ask them why your details have not been removed from the Schengen system. Don't let them fob you off, make sure they follow it up with whoever they dealt with to get your details on the system in the first place.

As this is all about data, I'd say the correct article would be Article 7 (Protection of Personal Data).

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

Hi all,

Just to clarify and correct myself, I was actually referring in my post with the proposed email format to Title 5 (not article 5) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union which covers citizens rights - title 5 is covered in the charter by articles 39 to 46. The articles of the charter were enshrined in law when the Lisbon Treaty was adopted in 2009.

Title 5 is important as it states that, unless there’s a good legal reason such as being on remand/bail then the freedom of movement of citizens must not be impaired. It also states that all citizens are entitled to ‘good administration’ which in this case would be relevant as it states that governments and their ‘agencies’, which includes the Police, are required to correct systems or documents that are now out of date if again it restricts the full implementation of EU citizens rights.

Also important is Section 2.9 of the European Commission’s Implementing Decision 2015/219 as it spells out that alerts must be deleted when they’re no longer needed, I.e. when you come off the SoR.

As a reminder, Schengen Information System 2 (SIS 2) article 36 alerts work on a report - hit - report - delete method. That means that when you notify travel to the PPU they update the PNC which then sends the travel notification to the SIS 2. When you travel to a foreign border and your passport is scanned a flag is activated and reports back to the UK that a ‘hit’ has taken place. The border agent is then able to complete a feedback form/report which gets sent to PPU. The alert is then deleted. The SIS 2 cannot have permanent alerts - they have to be time limited. That’s why sometimes PPU also use the Interpol Green Notice scheme as those alerts stay active for 5 years before deletion whether you travel or not. PPU are meant to use SIS 2 for travel inside the EU and EFTA countries and only use Interpol green notices for travel outside the EU + EFTA but there’s no hard and fast rule from what I can find.

Time is very limited to use these two arguments as once the U.K. leaves the EU you won’t be able to use them. This could be as soon as 31st October 2019. It’s debatable whether you would still be able to use them during the transition period, assuming a deal is found with the EU, which runs to 31 December 2020.

As I feared I was stopped the first time I've travelled to EU since my term on the SOR ended. Soul destroying feeling that all this is never going to end.

I've been advised that before I write the letter you suggest that I make  a subject access request regarding data held on SISII by writing to ACRO – the Criminal Records Office- re the retention period data , then write to the  SISIl  lead for my police force to ask to have this data removed from SISII etc. I was told I might need to use a solicitor at the end of the day to make be sure it's actually done. 

That's a good spot. Although the European Commission says you should contact the ICO about SIS II, the ICO's website says do it via ACRO.

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

Completely up to you how you approach it but my advice is don’t over think it, particularly as ACRO requests can take a few weeks to come back and the 31st October deadline is fast approaching. I also don’t believe that ACRO will tell you whether there’s any alerts on your file as ACRO only shows what the U.K. Police hold on you. SIS is maintained outside the U.K. and the U.K. only has a restricted level of access to it.

All I did was send a registered letter to my PPU and two weeks later I got a reply back saying that any remaining flags had been deleted and that I shouldn’t now have any problems. And since then I haven’t had any issues whatsoever at the border either returning to the U.K. or entering another country.

SIS2 isn’t the only database that they need to update when you come off the SoR. There’s also ViSOR which is linked to the Home Office watchlist that Border Force (or whatever they’re now called) use when they scan your passport. PPU won’t delete your ViSOR report - most probably just ‘archive’ it - but once that’s done you won’t then have issues on return back to the UK.

Thanks for this advice, I will use this when I come off, good to know, cheers.