Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce international maritime drug smuggling through British ports.

Border Force runs a 24/7 operation, with its officers working at over 140 sea and airports across the UK and overseas. We are determined to protect the public from drug trafficking and crack down on organised crime groups behind illicit drugs supply by tackling all stages of the supply chain. In the year ending March 2025, Border Force seized over 150 tonnes of illegal drugs, this is a 40% increase on the amount seized in the year ending March 2024.

Home Office officials led by the Border Security Command (working with the Police and the National Crime Agency) continue to explore all the new and emerging technologies that are available to help identify and intercept the vessels and individuals involved in smuggling drugs in the maritime environment, and our intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities remain amongst the best in the world. For reasons of national security, it would not be appropriate to go into greater detail.