Tobacco: Smuggling
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Government’s current strategy to prevent illicit tobacco sale.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and Border Force have a robust cross‑government strategy to tackle the illicit tobacco trade: Stubbing out the problem: A new strategy to tackle illicit tobacco.
The effectiveness of this approach is reflected in strong enforcement activity and published operational outputs. These outputs show continued high levels of seizures, criminal investigations and penalties. Further information can be found in the Annual Outputs for Tobacco Smuggling which also includes interventions at retail.
The impact and effectiveness of the strategy continues to be kept under review.
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