§ Lord Hyltonasked Her Majesty's Government:
What are the policies and priorities of the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise with regard to organised crime in Northern Ireland; whether they differ from policy in the United Kingdom generally; and how many prosecutions and convictions each has secured in Northern Ireland in the current and previous two years. [HL28]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord McIntosh of Haringey)Both departments seek to tackle the specific criminal offences for which they have responsibility in Northern Ireland as elsewhere within the UK on the basis of the risks that exist. They do so throughout the UK irrespective of any other illegal activities undertaken by those individuals and groups that commit such crimes.
Prosecution data are not published in a consistent form across the various regimes for which the departments are responsible. Details of the prosecutions and convictions secured by Customs in the years 2001–02 and 2002–03, where available, are shown in the table below, along with details of Inland Revenue prosecutions for 2003–04 and the current year to the end of September. Details of Customs prosecutions and convictions for 2003–04 will be published in the department's annual report and accounts on 16 December. 25WA
2001–02 2002–03 HMCE Number of Prosecutions Number of Convictions/Persons Convicted Number of Prosecutions Number of Convictions/Persons Convicted Oils Fraud (GB) 8 9 7 8 Oils Fraud (NI) 8 15 3 3 VAT (UK) 89 262 60 268 Drugs (UK) — 11,816 — 11,359 Customs (Other) UK — 40 — 30
2003–04 2004–05 (1/4/04–30/9/04) Inland Revenue Number of Prosecutions Number of Convictions/Persons Convicted Number of Prosecutions Number of Convictions/Persons Convicted UK — 99 — 109 NI (included in above) — 2 — 6 1 Number of people sentenced. 2 Number of cases which resulted in conviction.