Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to address the problem of criminal gangs intentionally crossing police force borders to exploit weaknesses in policing methods.

We know serious and organised crime (SOC) does not respect police force borders which is why all police forces in England and Wales collaborate and share resources, funding and specialist capabilities to deliver Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) to lead complex cross-border SOC investigations. There are nine ROCUs in England and Wales with equivalent capability in London.

Alongside approximately £70m in direct funding from the Home Office in 2023/24, Chief Constables, PCCs and Mayors with PCC functions have recently provided significant resource to the ROCU network by allocating 725 extra officers to ROCUs between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2023. Those officers are working in partnership now to tackle drugs supply and enablers, including firearms and criminal finances.

County lines is a major cross-cutting issue involving a range of criminality including drugs, violence, criminal gangs and child criminal exploitation, and involves the police, a wide range of Government departments, local government agencies and voluntary and community sector organisations. County lines gangs often export drugs across county borders from one police force area to another.

This Government is determined to crack down on county lines gangs which is why we are investing up to £145m over three years in our County Lines Programme to tackle the most violent and exploitative drug supply model yet seen. Through the County Lines Programme, we have established dedicated county lines taskforces in the four force areas exporting the majority of lines (MPS, Merseyside, West Midlands and Greater Manchester Police) as well as the British Transport Police to tackle the national rail network. We are also funding the National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC), to monitor the intelligence picture and co-ordinate the national law enforcement response. The NCLCC has been vital in strengthening the law enforcement response, promoting best practice, and enabling police forces to work together to tackle this complex issue.

Since the County Lines Programme was launched in 2019, police activity has resulted in over 5,600 line closures, over 16,500 arrests and over 8,800 safeguarding referrals. This includes over 2,500 line closures since April 2022, surpassing the Drugs Strategy commitment of over 2,000 line closures by April 2025. Having met this target in half the time, we have now committed to close a further 1,000 lines by August 2024, bringing the total since the Drugs Strategy was launched in April 2022 to over 3,000.