Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle illicit activity on the high street.

In May, the Government announced a £30 million crackdown targeting illicit cash intensive businesses such as barber shops, vape stores, mini-marts and sweet shops operating on our high streets, over three years. This includes the following activities:

- £20 million in funding towards an enhanced law enforcement response, including establishing a new multi-agency coordination cell based in the National Crime Agency.

- Police officers are being uplifted across forces in hotspot regions (Greater Manchester Police, West Midlands Police, and a joint Kent Police and Essex Police Unit).

- Trading Standards will also be backed with £6 million in new funding to bolster the response to sham businesses in at-risk local authorities. New officer training will be rolled out to identify suspicious businesses, strengthen business compliance and boost enforcement.

- A new cross-government High Street Organised Crime Unit has also been established to bring together government departments, policing partners and Trading Standards. The unit is responsible for identifying what more is needed – from stronger powers to better coordination – to stop this criminal activity from happening in the first place. On that front, the Government has already announced plans to double the duration of closure orders and plans are underway to introduce secondary legislation to that effect in the coming months.

- The remainder of the funding is split between HMRC and immigration enforcement.

This work builds upon operational activity, Operation MACHINIZE, led by the National Crime Agency in conjunction with the National Police Chief’s Council, which, since March 2025, has led to over 3,000 high street premises suspected of criminality having been visited and nearly 1,000 individuals arrested.

This Government is committed to tackling high street crime and the selling of illegal goods and we will continue to work with the NCA, regional and local policing, and other key stakeholders to disrupt the highest harm organised crime groups who operate these illegal businesses and cause harm within our communities.