Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle the illegal supply of drugs purchased on (a) the darkweb and (b) elsewhere on the internet.

Drugs devastate lives, ruin families and damage communities. The Government is committed to driving down drugs supply in the UK through tough law enforcement against the sale of drugs online, including on the dark web.

We work closely with the National Crime Agency, which in partnership with policing colleagues across the UK and internationally is mapping and targeting key offenders operating online, including the dark net markets themselves. Dedicated teams use a range of tools and techniques generally unavailable to most investigators and we make sure they have the resources and powers they need to keep our country safe.

We are clear that online companies must not allow their platforms to be used to sell illegal drugs and our Online Safety Bill will force them to remove this content or face large fines, with drugs-related offences to be included as a priority offence within the bill. This will require companies to identify, mitigate and effectively manage the risk of illegal activity on user-to-user services, services that allow user generated content to be shared and search services.

The Online Safety Bill is expected to be introduced to Parliament later this year.