Oral Answers to Questions

Sally-Ann Hart Excerpts

Wednesday 7th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Solicitor General]

I know that my right hon. Friend the Attorney General will be very grateful for the hon. Lady’s welcome. The Attorney General works incredibly closely with the Home Office on the issue; more broadly, in relation to victims, she works incredibly closely with the Home Office and with the Ministry of Justice. It is not in isolation, but with our three Departments, that we can make progress.

[Sally-Ann Hart (Hastings and Rye) (Con)]

2. What steps she is taking to increase prosecution rates for (a) small boat gangs and (b) other people traffickers.

[Andrew Lewer (Northampton South) (Con)]

3. What steps she is taking to increase prosecution rates for (a) small boat gangs and (b) other people traffickers.

[The Attorney General (Victoria Prentis)]

Since we enacted the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 at the end of June, prosecutions for illegal entry and facilitating illegal entry have increased by 250%. We are working across Government to ensure that we can stop the life-threatening crossings and prosecute the gangs behind them.

[Sally-Ann Hart]

Organised illegal immigration crime is transnational, making collaboration across Europe vital to tackling people-smuggling from source to transit to destination. What steps is my right hon. Friend taking to work with partners across Europe to share intelligence and resources, to ensure that more prosecutions are successfully brought against these reprehensible criminals?

[The Attorney General]

My hon. Friend is a great champion for beautiful Hastings and Rye. The Government routinely work with international partners to disrupt organised crime groups. The CPS has deployed a criminal justice adviser in France who supports prosecutions on both sides of the channel. We also collaborate with other jurisdictions, for example through Eurojust—the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation—on sharing evidence-gathering where that is appropriate.