Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential risk of weapons sent to the Ukrainian armed forces coming into the possession of organised crime gangs.

This Government is committed to tackling the threat posed by trafficking and the misuse of illicit small arms and light weapons which play a key role in facilitating Organised Crime Group (OCG) activity.

According to NAC Threat assessments it remains highly unlikely that the conflict in Ukraine is impacting on the Serious and organised crime small arms and light weapons threat to the UK. Despite the number of small arms and light weapons available in conflict zones, very few types available pre-conflict or donated by western governments are used by criminals in the UK.

At the end of the conflict, it is a realistic possibility that some small arms and light weapons will be traded on the European criminal marketplace. The threat is being monitored closely by agencies, in close cooperation with European Partners such as Europol. We are adopting a multi-agency approach to further develop an understanding of the illicit firearms trade and lessons learnt from previous events.