(Truro and Falmouth)
(Con): I thank the Minister for his answer. I was very
pleased, recently, that a county lines dealer who had been
flooding towns across Cornwall, including Truro, with drugs was
jailed for five and a half years. There is a lot more to do in
Cornwall, because we are seeing an increase in the impact of
county lines drugs activity and all the crimes that go with it.
Can the Minister confirm that the Government are aware of the
issues in Cornwall and assure me that they are committed to
working with our brilliant police and crime commissioner, , and the six Cornish MPs
to address the continued problems, in particular how the
Government can support the wider roll-out of Project ADDER?
The Minister for Crime and Policing (): I am focused on the impact of drugs across
the whole country, and particularly in areas such as
Devon and Cornwall, where I know the chief
constable, and , the police and crime
commissioner, have been doing an enormous amount of work. This
problem is so prevalent across the United Kingdom that every part
has to work together, and I am pleased that Devon and
Cornwall Police have been working closely, particularly with
the Metropolitan Police and Merseyside Police, which are the two
key exporting forces for drugs into my hon. Friend’s area. She
might be interested to know that recently the British Transport
Police, which plays a critical part in gripping the network that
distributes the drugs, conducted a fixed-point pilot at
Basingstoke Station. It intercepted drugs that were heading
towards her constituency, and I hope she will soon feel the
effects of that...
