Question to the Minister of Justice

Minister's Answer

The BBC 'Spotlight' and 'Panorama' investigations highlighted that threat, but it also highlighted some of the successes in tackling and disrupting those routes, including work with the National Crime Agency (NCA). Border security and international relations is a reserved matter, so it falls outside my area of responsibility as Justice Minister, but I am concerned about the resource and societal implications that arise from the increasing use of Northern Ireland as a trafficking corridor that goes through these islands and onwards to Europe.

I wrote to the Home Secretary and drew her attention to the programme and asked that she urgently engage with her Irish counterpart to seek their cooperation and assurance that consideration is being given to whether additional measures are needed to address the issue for the protection of us all. I await her response, but it is important that, at a local level, we continue to work closely with operational partners to keep those harmful, illicit substances off our streets through the organised crime task force (OCTF) structures and that we work through those to ensure that people, particularly those in Northern Ireland, are protected.