§ Mr. Wheelerasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to Her Majesty's Customs and Excise management plan 1984–85, how many officers are engaged full-time in dealing with restrictions or controls over dangerous drugs, firearms, explosives and indecent and obscene articles; if such officers are organised in special units; and what is the management structure.
§ Mr. HayhoeThe number of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise staff engaged full-time on customs preventive and non-revenue fraud work at 31 March 1984 was 3,060. These duties include dealing with restrictions or controls over dangerous drugs, firearms, explosives and indecent and obscene articles.
Many of these staff are deployed at ports, airports and inland clearance depots where thay operate both static and flexible controls and also man intelligence gathering teams. There are also mobile task forces and mobile rummage crews available to enhance these controls and participate in targetted operations. Coastal waters are patrolled by revenue cutters, often working in conjunction with land based mobile forces. 339 staff were engaged at 31 March 1984 on non-revenue fraud work. This included 201 (since increased to 212) specialist drugs investigators working in special teams.
The management structure is headed by two headquarters directorates — customs and outfield, who cover questions relating to policy and management of resources—but operational control is delegated to 22 regional collectors, within whose areas of responsibility the maximum use is made of flexible deployment to match the needs of the work.
176WIn 1984–85, and extra 60 posts have been allocated to enhance preventive controls of passengers and freight. A further increase of 100 posts for the fight against drugs smuggling is planned for 1985–86.