Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Department is taking to increase the number of drug searches at transport hubs.

The Government is committed to tackling the supply and movement of illegal drugs, including through transport networks and at the UK border.

Decisions on the use of stop and search are operational matters for the police, based on local intelligence, threat and risk. Police officers have powers to search individuals and vehicles where the statutory grounds are met, and forces work with partners across transport networks to target illegal drugs supply. The Home Office continues to work with policing partners to support the effective, intelligence-led and proportionate use of these powers, while improving the data available to assess their use and outcomes.

County Lines is a highly violent and exploitative model of drug supply and a harmful form of child criminal exploitation. Through the County Lines Programme, we are targeting exploitative drug dealing gangs and breaking the organised crime groups behind the trade. As part of this work, the Home Office funds a dedicated British Transport Police County Lines Taskforce to disrupt county lines activity on the rail network and identify those involved in the movement and supply of drugs.