Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) budget is, (b) full-time equivalent staff is and (c) objectives are for 2015-16 of the taskforce on migration issues in the Mediterranean.

Up to 90 officers from a number of UK agencies will be deployed in the UK, the Mediterranean and Africa as part of the Organised Immigration Crime Task Force to pursue and disrupt the organised crime groups callously profiting from the people smuggling trade. The taskforce will exploit every opportunity at source, in transit countries and in Europe to tackle the gangs' criminal operations and better protect the UK and vulnerable migrants from this threat.

For 2015/16, the task force will work to enrich the intelligence picture and relentlessly disrupt, pursue and prosecute the organised crime groups . To do this effectively, the taskforce will be a mix of intelligence officers, de-briefers, investigative officers and prosecutors. We are still finalising the costs of the Taskforce.