Smuggling (Hansard, 13 December 1994)

§ Mr. Dalyell
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make an assessment of the effect of the enforced retirement of substantial numbers of Customs and Excise officers on the continuing problem of beer and Scotch whisky smuggling.

§ Mr. Heathcoat-Amory
The fundamental expenditure review—FER—carried out by Customs and Excise will mean that the Department reduces in size by about 4,000 over five years. All possible steps will be taken to avoid redundancy and it is envisaged that the reductions will be achieved through natural wastage and voluntary severance schemes.
The amount or resources devoted to detecting the smuggling of alcoholic drinks and tobacco products will not be affected by the FER. Indeed, there will soon be a modest increase in the number of excise verification officers deployed by the Department.

§ Mr. Steen
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many Customs and Excise officers are involved in reducing drug smuggling and the unauthorised importation of alcoholic drinks in the financial year 1994–95; and how many officers will be involved in each of the next three years.

§ Mr. Heathcoat-Amory
In 1994–95 Customs expects to have deployed about 5,100 staff years on drugs control work. As well as including staff years from the customs function, this figure includes elements on investigation, intelligence, legal support, training and information systems.
Enforcement techniques established in Customs over recent years have increased the use of better targeted, intelligence-led interceptions in place of static routine checks. This has enabled a more effective enforcement effort while allowing freer movement of legitimate traffic. The customs fundamental expenditure review shows that further moves in this direction can be made.
To combat smuggling of excise goods from other EU member states, Customs has allocated some 240 staff to single market excise work, most of whom are specially trained excise verification officers. The EVO effort is intelligence directed, and is supported by specialist investigation staff and the control measures taken by Excise and VAT visiting officers.
587W
The resource will not be affected by the fundamental expenditure review. Indeed, there will be a modest increase in the number of EVOs deployed by the Department. However staff numbers for the next three financial years have not yet been finally determined.