Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to tackle county lines drug dealing in (a) Slough and (b) England.

This Government is determined to crack down on the county lines gangs who are exploiting our children and have a devastating impact on our communities.

That is why we are investing £25m to boost efforts to tackle these ruthless gangs. Our overall package launched in October last year includes: expanding the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre; increased disruption on the rail networks by the British Transport Police County Lines Taskforce; police intensification in three key exporting areas (the Metropolitan Police, Merseyside, West Midlands); investment in new technology; and increased support for victims. Our funding has supported joint operations across England and Wales, including with Thames Valley Police.

Our investment is already delivering results. Following the £5m we invested in 2019-2020, the Metropolitan Police, Merseyside, West Midlands and British Transport Police closed nearly 140 deal lines, seized cash and drugs with a total value of over £3 million, and made over 100 weapons seizures between November 2019 and March 2020.

In addition, between 2019 and 2021 we are investing £2.32m in the Thames Valley region to develop a multi-agency Violence Reduction Unit which combines expertise from police, local government, health and education professionals, community leaders and others to identify the causes of serious violent crimes, including county lines, and deliver a multi-agency response.

We have also invested £3.2m over 2019 and 2021 in Thames Valley to ‘surge’ the operational police response to serious violent crimes, which is supporting vital work to identify and disrupt county lines.