Extracts from end of day adjournment debate (Commons) on Local Policing - Sep 7
Wednesday, 8 September 2021 08:34
Andrew Bowie (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (Con):...Let me
give some examples. In my constituency, following the tragedy on
the railway at Carmont last year, we saw the British Transport
police keeping passengers safe and working closely with Police
Scotland to secure the site and assist the investigation. In the
largest joint operation to take place in Scotland—and perhaps
throughout Britain—Operation Venetic involved police forces
throughout the UK and the National Crime Agency It...Request free trial
(West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (Con):...Let
me give some examples. In my constituency, following the tragedy on
the railway at Carmont last year, we saw the British Transport
police keeping passengers safe and working closely with Police
Scotland to secure the site and assist the investigation. In the
largest joint operation to take place in Scotland—and perhaps
throughout Britain—Operation Venetic involved police forces
throughout the UK and the National Crime Agency It resulted, in
July last year, in 59 arrests; the seizure of £7 million of
laundered cash, along with guns, ammunition, explosives, stolen
vehicles and industrial pill presses; and a major haul of drugs of
every classification. It ended in the takedown of a digital
platform, EncroChat, used by criminals around the world to get
poison into all our communities—technology that did not respect
borders, political or geographical...
The Minister for Crime and Policing ():...I am very pleased that my hon. Friend
underlined the integral nature of Police Scotland—the vital part
that it plays in the architecture of UK policing. It is absolutely
the case that, while the governance and accountability framework
for Police Scotland is devolved, its role in the safety of the
whole United Kingdom is absolutely critical. UK policing can only
succeed or fail as a whole. This was neatly outlined to us—I was
pleased that he mentioned it—with the advent of Operation Venetic.
This extraordinary operation—a magnificent achievement by
the National Crime Agency which of
course works across the whole of the UK—cracked open the bespoke
criminal communications system known as Encrochat. It revealed some
awful horrors across the whole of the United Kingdom that we were
able to get ahead of. Chief among them was the targeting of
Scotland by organised crime specifically for the trafficking of
drugs. My hon. Friend mentioned some of the remarkable results that
continue to come from the intelligence gathered as part of that
operation...
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