Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle criminal smuggler gangs.

The Government is committed to tackling the ruthless criminal gangs who facilitate illegal immigration, risk lives and damage communities by smuggling people, firearms and drugs into the UK.

We are working to end small boat crossings and disrupt the organised crime groups behind this activity. Through Project INVIGOR, a multi-agency taskforce, the Home Office is leading efforts to tackle organised immigration crime and the National Crime Agency is responding to and dismantling the business model used by organised criminals to enable illegal entry into the UK.

We are strengthening the security of the UK border against drug trafficking, increasing disruptions and seizures and dismantling supply chains.

As part of the Government’s ten-year Drugs Strategy, the Home Office is investing £300m over three years to deliver an end-to-end plan attacking every phase of the supply chain, making the UK a significantly harder place for organised crime groups involved in drugs supply to operate.