Drug Smuggling (Hansard, 12 March 1997)

§ Lord Chesham
My Lords, the Answer to the Question is yes. The annual quantity of drugs seized by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise each year has more than doubled since 1990 from a total of 25.8 tonnes seized in 1990 to 55.6 tonnes seized in 1995.

Lord Campbell of Croy
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for his reply. I have noted reports about the successful discovery of drugs in unlikely hiding places. Can my noble friend confirm that in that connection much help is being provided by trained sniffer dogs? Is full attention being paid to long stretches of irregular 298 coastline, for example the west coast of the Scottish Highlands, where drugs can be landed and attempts may be made to do so particularly at night?

§ Lord Chesham
My Lords, definite success has been achieved by the utilisation of sniffer dogs. There are now 90 of them deployed around the United Kingdom. They are trained to detect a wide range of drugs concealed in freight, vessels, vehicles, luggage, postal packages and on the person. In 1995–96 the dogs made 1,112 detections of drugs valued at some £25.9 million—an increase of 10 per cent. on the previous year. Detections of Class A drugs—that includes cocaine and heroin—by dogs rose by 35 per cent. last year. As regards remote parts of the country, Customs and Excise staff are now in flexible, highly mobile anti-smuggling teams based at strategic locations and supported more and more by intelligence information. This is proving effective. In Scotland, for example—which the noble Lord mentioned—front-line anti-smuggling staff have already this year made five commercial drugs seizures with a street value of some £3.3 million compared with two commercial drugs seizures last year valued at £120,000 and one the year before that at £73,000.

§ Lord Wright of Richmond
My Lords, can the Minister say whether the advertising campaign entitled "Rat on a Rat" has so far had any appreciable effect on drug seizures?

§ Lord Chesham
My Lords, that concerns a slightly different matter from the importation of drugs, but it is beginning to have an effect.

§ Lord Mackie of Benshie
My Lords, the noble Lord has given figures showing that the amount of drugs detected has doubled. However, is he sure that a larger proportion has been detected or could it be that the total amount of drugs coming in has increased?

§ Lord Chesham
My Lords, I wish I could answer that question. If we knew how many illegal drugs were coming in and where they were they would be seized. We cannot possibly say whether the figure represents a greater proportion of the total. However, there is another measurement which could be useful to the noble Lord and that is the value of drugs prevented from entering the UK. That information comes from intelligence sources. Success in this area is achieved mainly by breaking up smuggling gangs. The figure has risen from an estimated £500 million in 1990 to £1.677 billion in 1995–96.

§ Lord Eatwell
My Lords, the Minister has told the House that the amount of drugs detected coming into the country has increased enormously. Will he confirm that in the Treasury fundamental expenditure review of 1994–95 there was a decision to cut 292 front-line anti-smuggling Customs officers from the staff of Customs and Excise? Will he also confirm that the Government are now planning to cut a further 300 front-line staff from Customs and Excise? Will 299 the Minister tell the House whether he thinks there is any relationship between these significant cuts in anti-smuggling staff and the amount of narcotics coming into the country? Will he also tell the House why the Conservative Party is soft on drug smuggling?

§ Lord Chesham
My Lords, I resent the suggestion that the Conservative Party is soft on drug smuggling. Of the 292 anti-smuggling posts that were cut in the first reduction, 50 of those posts were recycled into investigation and intelligence work where most of our success in this area is derived. A report on the emerging impact of that first tranche is being considered at the moment. No further cuts will be made until the impact has been fully assessed.

§ Lord Eatwell
My Lords, will the Minister confirm that the Treasury had announced that it had planned a reduction of 300 posts in the Customs service which is now being considered?

§ Lord Chesham
My Lords, I repeat what I have said. No decision on further cuts will be made until the impact of the previous cuts has been fully evaluated.

§ Lord Peyton of Yeovil
My Lords, did not my noble friend find that accusation from the noble Lord opposite a little unacceptable? Will he not consider inviting the noble Lord opposite to substantiate that serious and quite unfounded charge?

§ Lord Chesham
My Lords, I think that I said I found it offensive. The accusation cannot be substantiated, so to ask the noble Lord to do so would achieve no purpose whatever.

§ The Earl of Strafford
My Lords, will the Minister confirm that less than the estimated 10 per cent. of illegal drugs entering the country are intercepted? Does the Minister accept that that level of seizure has remarkably little effect on the street availability of drugs?

§ Lord Chesham
My Lords, the point relates to the question asked previously. We do not know what illegal drugs are coming in. Therefore an assessment of 10 per cent. is purely guesswork.

§ Lord Avebury
My Lords, will the Minister confirm that something like 80 per cent. of the heroin entering Europe comes via Turkey? What consideration have the Government given to the flow of reports from Turkey about the links between the Turkish mafia and high level politicians in that country which appear to be facilitating the entry of these harmful drugs into our continent?

§ Lord Chesham
My Lords, I believe that that is a question for our intelligence services. It is not a subject which is passed on to me.