Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle drug related crime in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (b) Staffordshire.

To deliver on our pledge to halve knife crime in the next decade, it is crucial that we tackle the gangs that lure children and young people into crime and run county lines through violence and exploitation.

County Lines are the most violent model of drug supply and a harmful form of child criminal exploitation. Through the County Lines Programme, we will continue to target exploitative drug dealing gangs and break the organised crime groups behind the trade.

Since July 2024, policing activity delivered through the County Lines Programme has resulted in over 400 deal lines being closed, the arrest and charge of over 200 deal line holders, 500 arrests and 800 safeguarding referrals of children and vulnerable people.

As part of the Programme, the National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC) regularly coordinates weeks of intensive action against county lines gangs, which all police forces take part in. The most recent of these took place 25 November to 1 December 2024 and resulted in 261 lines closed, as well as 1,660 arrests, 1,434 individuals safeguarded and 557 weapons seized.

As committed to in the Government’s manifesto, we are also introducing a new offence of child criminal exploitation in the Crime and Policing Bill to go after the gangs who are luring children into violent crime. A new criminal offence is necessary to increase convictions against exploiters, deter gangs from enlisting children, and improve identification of victims. Alongside a new offence, we are creating a new regime for CCE prevention orders to prevent exploitative conduct committed by adults against children from occurring or re-occurring.