People Smugglers: Prosecution

The Government are taking the serious, robust and tough action needed to secure our borders. That is why we are giving the police counter-terror powers to deal with people-smuggling gangs. We have backed that with a funding boost to the CPS to enhance its capacity to prosecute cases involving these appalling cross-border smuggling networks.

People across Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages want the Government to get a grip on people-smuggling in the channel after the previous Government’s dereliction of duty. Too many lives are at risk; too many people are making that dangerous crossing. Although it is great news that police are working hard, and have arrested dozens of people smugglers and seized almost half a million pounds of criminal cash, it is clear that we need to go further and faster. What steps is the Solicitor General taking to ensure that people smugglers face the hefty jail terms that they deserve?

My hon. Friend is absolutely right: it is vital that police and prosecutors work together to bring people smugglers to justice, and that our criminal justice system sends a clear message that people smuggling will be met with hefty jail terms. I am pleased to tell him that an offender who played a leading role in an organised crime group that smuggled nearly 4,000 migrants was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment in May.

Does the Solicitor General understand the frustration, annoyance and anger of many people in the United Kingdom about the fact that we are paying the French authorities many millions of pounds to do what appears—at the moment anyway—to be very little to smash the gangs that we keep being told will be smashed?

International partnerships are an incredibly important part of our plan to smash the gangs. Our recent work with the French Government in particular is bearing a great deal of fruit. In fact, we hope that the French will soon be able to address the situation that they currently cannot: when would-be migrants are in shallow water.