Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking with local authorities to help tackle the illicit tobacco trade.

In January 2021 HMRC and National Trading Standards launched Operation CeCe. This joint initiative builds on decades of partnership working with local Trading Standards Officers.

This supports them to undertake enforcement activity including the sharing of information and intelligence to target and seize illegal tobacco, disruption of the illicit tobacco market and prevention of fraud in their area. In its first two years of operation more than 28 million cigarettes and nearly 8 tonnes of illicit hand rolling-tobacco were seized.

In January this year, HMRC published a new Illicit Tobacco Strategy ‘Stubbing out the problem’. The Strategy sets out how HMRC intends to build on the success of Operation CeCe by increasing the level of funding available to Trading Standards so that it can have an even greater impact in tackling the illicit tobacco trade.