Drugs: Organised Crime
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 28 October 2025 to Question 83494 on Drugs: Organised Crime, what the name is of the dedicated fund used to provide additional funding to tackle county lines.
Answered by Sarah Jones
We are investing more than £43m this financial year (25/26) in the County Lines Programme, to target exploitative drug dealing gangs whilst breaking the organised crime groups behind this trade.
Whilst we have prioritised investment in the five police forces with the greatest number of ‘exported’ county lines (Metropolitan Police, Merseyside Police, West Midlands Police, Greater Manchester Police and West Yorkshire Police), the Programme also provides funding for the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre (NCLCC) to monitor the intelligence picture and co-ordinate the national law enforcement response and a dedicated fund which provides local police forces with additional funding to tackle county lines, referred to as the County Lines Programme ‘Surge Fund’.
The Surge Fund is allocated to forces through a bidding process, managed by the NCLCC on behalf of the Home Office. Funding is allocated based on NCLCC’s assessment of county lines threat and impact.
As one of the top importing areas for county lines, Cambridgeshire Constabulary have consistently received investment from the Surge Fund. The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of individual police force allocations due to operational sensitivities.
Verbatim has judged this answer against the question that was actually asked — answered, partly answered, or evaded. Sign in to see the verdict →