Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress he has made on the formation of the cross-ministerial working group on illicit trade.

I remain committed to sponsoring work across government to tackle illicit tobacco. This requires a full understanding of cross-government policy on tobacco, tobacco control and efforts to tackle illicit tobacco. This is a complex picture and I have asked officials in HMRC to work with other departments to ensure that we have this context to identify the challenges and opportunities in the UK and internationally and determine a clear agenda for ministerial action. This work is continuing.