§ 26. Mr. Sackvilleasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on changes in manning levels per arriving passenger in the Customs service at the ports of entry at which substantial seizures of heroin have recently been made.
§ Mr. HayhoeOver 80 per cent. of the more substantial seizures of heroin made by Customs and Excise in 1983 took place at Heathrow airport. Manning levels per arriving passenger at Heathrow and Gatwick airports together were about 1 to 16,000 in 1982 and about 1 to 17,000 in 1983, but the more flexible deployment of staff, together with improvements in intelligence gathering, led to an increase of about 10 per cent. in the volume of drugs seized over the same period.