Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to recover revenue lost to the illicit trade in tobacco.

Since 2000, HMRC’s tobacco fraud strategy has reduced the illicit market for cigarettes from 22% in 2000/01 to 10% in 2013/14, and the illicit market for hand-rolling tobacco from 61% to 39% in the same period.

The current strategy to tackle tobacco smuggling was launched in 2011 and adopts a holistic approach to tackling the problem overseas, at the border and within the UK. This includes continual monitoring of intelligence to assess and respond to changes in criminal behaviours, partnership working with other enforcement agencies, such as Trading Standards, and use of a wide range of interventions and sanctions.

The strategy can be accessed on the HMRC website: http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageImport_ShowContent&id=HMCE_PROD1_031246&propertyType=document