Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps are being taken to strengthen sentences for people convicted of the sale of illegal tobacco.

Prosecutions for illegal tobacco can be brought for a range of offences from dealing in illicit product, on which UK duty has not been paid, to breaches of the Department of Health’s regulations for tobacco control.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is responsible for combatting illicit tobacco. The joint HMRC/Border Force strategy ('Tackling Illicit Tobacco: From leaf to light') ‎published on 24 March 2015 reflected the need to continue to strengthen the approach to deal with this problem in the UK and internationally.

This strategy included a commitment to work with other enforcement agencies to maximise the effective use of all the sanctions available across government and to consider introducing tougher sanctions. HMRC is currently considering the responses to its consultation on sanctions to tackle illicit tobacco, and potentially other excise duty fraud, which closed on 12 May.

To reinforce this commitment, at Summer Budget 2015 the government announced measures to increase HMRC’s capacity to investigate and prosecute organised crime groups dealing in illicit tobacco by 50%.