Drug Dealing: Rural Communities

7. What steps she is taking to help tackle drug dealing in rural communities.

Through the county lines programme, we continue to target exploitative drug dealing gangs wherever they operate, including in rural areas, as part of our efforts to dismantle the organised crime groups behind that trade. Since the Government took office, the county lines programme has closed over 400 drug lines running across communities in England and Wales. In our manifesto, we committed to going after the gangs that lure young people into violence and crime. At the weekend, we announced that we will create a new offence of child criminal exploitation in the forthcoming crime and policing Bill.

It is well known that rural and seaside areas are targeted by drug gangs. Escapeline has assessed that up to 70,000 young people, some as young as six, are being trafficked. In my constituency, I have recently dealt with young girls who have been provided with drugs by trusted adults in dance schools, where no action is taken, because those adults are not seen as requiring a Disclosure and Barring Service check, and with vulnerable adults who are being controlled in their homes, where there has been no response at all from local police, because my small towns are simply not seen to be a priority and resources are directed elsewhere. How can I offer reassurance to my communities that their small towns are not being forgotten?

The hon. Lady makes an important point. Specific resources are available to police forces to be surged into tackling county lines. I know the police force in Dorset, in her area, has applied for that funding in the past, so I encourage her to have a conversation with the police and crime commissioner and chief constable about what more can be done to get that resource into the towns she talks about.