Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to tackle criminal activity via county lines.

County Lines is the most violent model of drug supply and a harmful form of child criminal exploitation. To deliver our pledge to halve knife crime in the next decade, it is crucial that we tackle the drug gangs that run county lines through violence and exploitation.

Since July 2024, policing activity delivered through the County Lines Programme has resulted in over 400 deal lines being closed, 500 arrests (including the arrest and charge of over 200 deal line holders) and 800 safeguarding referrals for children and vulnerable people. Over 220 children and young people have also received dedicated specialist support through our county lines support service since July.

In addition, the Government’s Manifesto included an unambiguous commitment to “introduce a new offence of criminal exploitation of children, to go after the gangs who are luring young people into violence and crime”. A new criminal offence is necessary to increase convictions against exploiters, deter gangs from enlisting children, and improve identification of victims. This will be brought forward as part of the forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill.