§ Mr. Roweasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will increase the Customs and Excise resources dedicated to the prevention of drugs smuggling.
§ Mr. HayhoeI recognise the considerable contribution made by Customs and Excise officers to the prevention of drugs smuggling. I have decided to authorise Customs and Excise to appoint 50 additional key staff to enable it to increase its highly successful force of specialist investigators. I do not underrate the valuable work of the non-specialist Customs preventive officers and I intend to continue to evaluate the results of the additional 160 officers deployed by customs at ports and airports.