Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to protect vulnerable children from county lines drugs networks in (a) Slough and (b) the South East.

The Government recognises the devastating impact of county lines activity on children and vulnerable people.

We are determined to disrupt these ruthless gangs and put an end to exploitation. In January we announced £40 million of new money to tackle county lines and drugs supply in the financial year 2021/22. This will bring the total invested in tackling this threat to £65 million since November 2019.

Through our £25m county lines programme we have already seen 3,400 people arrested, more than 550 lines closed and more than 770 vulnerable people safeguarded.

We are also investing £105.5m into 18 Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) until March 2022 to tackle the root causes of serious violence via a whole system approach which can include activity to prevent and support victims of county lines.

Thames Valley VRU, backed by £3.48m investment to develop and sustain their VRU in reducing serious violence, are also targeting and supporting victims of county lines. For example, Thames Valley have established an enhanced information sharing network, which shares information on young people that might be at risk of county lines with specialist departments. The VRU can then provide support for those young people by introducing early intervention strategies embedded within the trauma informed approach.

In addition, we have extended the specialist support available for those affected by county lines exploitation and we continue to fund Missing People’s SafeCall service which provides confidential, specialist advice and support to young people and their families/carers who are affected by county lines exploitation anywhere in England and Wales.