QUESTION 12

STAFFING AT LONDON AIRPORTS

  London Airports Collection comprises Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton airports.

1.   Anti-smuggling Divisions

  Anti-smuggling staff are deployed primarily to detect the smuggling of a wide range of prohibited and restricted items (notably illegal drugs, firearms and paedophile material) and revenue goods from outside the EC (alcohol and tobacco).

  At the four London airports the number of front-line anti-smuggling staff has been increased over the past five years, from 610 in 1995-96 to 635 this year (1999-2000). At Heathrow the number of anti-smuggling staff deployed has changed marginally, from 381 in 1995-96 to 374 in 1999-2000. (This small reduction includes the loss of three staff years this year following the transfer of some parcel post work to Coventry Airport.)

2.   Cargo Division

  The Cargo Division at London Airports has responsibility for fiscal control of freight imports, exports, transhipments and community transit movements. In addition Cargo Division staff provide a help desk service to the public and operate counter services for both private and commercial importers. Cargo Division staff do not have primary responsibility for detecting the illegal importation of drugs, firearms and paedophile material (this is tasked to anti-smuggling staff), but they do have primary responsibility for detecting breaches of UN sanctions and infringements of trade marks (eg counterfeit goods).

  There are currently 222 staff years allocated to the Cargo Division at Heathrow. Within the Heathrow Cargo Division the following staff reductions have been made since 1995:

—  Year to March 1996—12.8 staff years (4.2 per cent)

—  Year to March 1997—20.4 staff years (7.1 per cent)

—  Year to March 1998—10.5 staff years (4 per cent)

—  Year to March 1999—9 staff years (3.6 per cent)

—  Year to March 2000—15 staff years (6.2 per cent)

  Mr Hawkins quoted a reduction of 17 staff for 1999-2000 [Q9]—the additional two staff years are Cargo Division posts reduced at Gatwick. This brings the total reduction in Cargo Division staff for the four London airports to 17 for this fiscal year. These reductions result from the 1994 Fundamental Expenditure Review efficiency savings and (more recently) the movement of freight control inland as a result of the take up of Customs Freight Simplified Procedures (CFSP) aimed at facilitating trade. These staff reductions will have no impact on the seizure of prohibited and restricted goods, such as drugs. That work is undertaken by anti-smuggling staff.

  Targets and results (revenue collection in terms of underpayments identified) within the Cargo Division across the four airports for the past five years have been:

	Target	Achieved
—  Year to March 1995	£8.7 million	£12.8 million
—  Year to March 1996	£10.5 million	£15.75 million
—  Year to March 1997	£13.4 million	£25.4 million
—  Year to March 1998	£15 million	£20.9 million
—  Year to March 1999	£19.6 million	£25.8 million

  The March 1997 figure includes a small number of exceptionally large underpayments.

  The contribution of Heathrow Cargo teams to the 1998-99 achievement is £24.9 million. Mr Hawkins made reference to a £2 million shortfall against target [Q9]. This relates to the target of a single operational team at Heathrow in respect of their contribution to the overall Collection target. It was this individual team target that was not met last year, due to some staff from the team being diverted for two months onto a special exercise to risk test tobacco revenue fraud. Overall London Airports cargo teams exceeded the 1998-99 Collection target by £6.2 million.

  There are currently 28 compliance staff at Heathrow Cargo. Of these eight (Mr Hawkins quoted seven), staff are mobile and visit transit shed and enhanced remote transit shed (ERTS) operators, of which there are indeed over 100. However, the role of these eight mobile staff is to test compliance with the transit shed approval and procedures, not to examine or control the actual freight in the sheds. (That is the role of the import operations staff, of whom there are 47.) We believe that the current level of compliance resource is in line with the assessed risk.

QUESTION 197FF

DRUGS FINANCIAL RESULTS

PROCEEDS OF DRUG TRAFFICKING

1997-98		Target		Result
Benefits alleged		£50 million		£50.1 million
Benefits determined by the Courts		£25 million		£24.6 million
Assets identified		£10 million		£13.9 million
Amounts paid against Confiscation Orders		£3 million		£3.02 million
1998-99		Target		Result
Benefits alleged		£50 million		£67.4 million*
Benefits determined by the Courts		£27.5 million		£41.5 million
Assets identified		£13.5 million		£18 million
Amounts paid against Confiscation Orders		£3 million		£4.9 million**

* Includes an exceptional case of £20 million

** Includes an exceptional case of £2 million

  For 1999-2000, we have introduced an overall performance indicator to measure the value of amounts realised against confiscation orders and forfeiture orders made by the Courts with a target set of £6 million. Our priority is to deprive drug traffickers of the proceeds of their crimes and this new indicator will clearly reflect the real impact of our activities in this area.

9 June 1999