To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people smuggling gangs have been disbanded since the establishment of the Border Security Command.
Answered on
23 January 2025
The Border Security Command (BSC) is working strategically across the Border Security system, including with partners such as the National Crime Agency, police, and intelligence agencies to dismantle criminal smuggling gangs, and disrupt their supply chains.
The BSC and its partner agencies are also working closely with their international counterparts to pursue Organised Immigration Crime gangs operating across Europe and beyond, and this work has already led to a number of widely publicised raids and arrests in recent months.
While the BSC is continuing to mature, it is already working closely with delivery partners who tackle organised immigration crime across Whitehall, collecting key data across the system such as organised immigration crime disruptions, with the ambition to track long-term impact and support the delivery of operational activity. This will support the BSC’s ability to drive cohesive delivery across the system and ensure a secure and effective border. Working collaboratively in this way will allow us to increase the number of OIC groups which we break up and subsequently reduce small boat crossings. These numbers will be monitored to ensure we make changes to our approach when needed. Further detail on success measures, including a reporting framework, will be out in due course.