§ Mr. ForthTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to tackle tobacco and alcohol smuggling. [3325]
§ Mr. BoatengLast year the Government published the "Tackling Tobacco Smuggling" strategy and announced an additional investment of £209 million to fund almost 1,000 new Customs officers and a national network of the latest X-ray scanners. This strategy is designed to put tobacco smuggling into decline within three years.
379WThe Government are determined to crack down on all forms of fraud, including cross-channel smuggling of alcohol. We aim to reduce revenue loss from all cross-channel smuggling by 10 per cent. year on year. To achieve this, 170 of the additional Customs officers have been specifically deployed at the channel ports to target both alcohol and tobacco smuggling.
The strategy is at an early stage but it is already beginning to show results. In the first nine months of 2000–01, Customs have seized 1.4 billion cigarettes in the UK, helped overseas enforcement agencies seize nearly 700 million cigarettes en route to the UK and broken up 38 major organised criminal gangs.