Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs Minutes of Evidence


Memorandum submitted by HM Customs and Excise Law Enforcement

  Thank you for your letter of 8 January to Bill Logan asking a series of questions about Customs activity in Northern Ireland. I have been asked to reply.

(a)  What human (measured in terms of full-time personnel) and financial resource are available to the Organised Crime Task Force through HM Customs and Excise?

  The Organised Crime Task Force (OCTF) does not have a permanent corps of operational officers. Its role is to bring together all agencies in Northern Ireland so that they work together in the most effective way to tackle organised criminality which is an obstacle to the transition of Northern Ireland into a "civic" society.

  Therefore, Customs do not have any officers permanently attached to the OCTF. However, all of Customs officers in Northern Ireland, and on the mainland as appropriate, are available and regularly participate in multi-agency operations which the OCTF seeks to promote.

(b)  How many staff in HM Customs and Excise are wholly or mainly engaged in work against terrorist organised crime in Northern Ireland, and how does this compare to human resources allocated to tackling "ordinary" organised crime in Northern Ireland.

  None—tackling "terrorist organised crime" is not a Customs responsibility. Customs responsibilities include enforcement of the restrictions and prohibitions on certain goods, such as Class A drugs, and tackling evasion of indirect taxes through fraud and smuggling. In Northern Ireland, Customs top priorities are combating the evasion of excise duty on road fuel and tobacco.

  The Northern Ireland Threat Assessment, published in May 2001, did highlight that up to half of all the criminal gangs in Northern Ireland have current or historic links to paramilitary groups. That is not why such gangs come within Customs interests. Customs focus is on the evasion of road fuel and tobacco duty and not on any paramilitary activities which these gangs may engage in. Customs have significant resources devoted to tackling this evasion.

(c)  What is the estimated loss of duty on smuggled fuel in each of the years:

    (i)  1 April 1998-31 March 1999;

    (ii)  1 April 1999-31 March 2000;

    (iii)  1 April 2000-31 March 2001; and

    (iv)  1 April 2001-31 December 2001.

  The latest estimates of revenue loss from cross-border shopping and all forms of oils fraud were published in the Government paper, Measuring Indirect Tax Fraud, a copy of which is in the House of Commons library.

  Customs cannot, at this stage, differentiate between the revenue loss from legitimate cross-border shopping and from the fraudulent evasion of road fuel duty, nor between different types of fraud, such as smuggling, misuse of rebated fuels, laundering or mixing.

(a)  What was the total fuel (by tonnage and category) brought into Northern Ireland (via Sydenham) in the years ended 31 March 1992 and 31 March 1997, and in each of the periods cited in (c) above?

  Set out below are the total deliveries of duty paid fuel (in tonnes) into Northern Ireland as collected by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Year end
Leaded/LRP
Unleaded
Derv
Petrol
Total road fuel
31 March 1992
403,288
237,271
330,884
640,559
971,443
31 March 1993
345,115
277,323
356,257
622,438
979,695
31 March 1994
282,609
315,619
368,326
598,228
966,554
31 March 1995
218,514
328,707
379,030
547,221
926,341
31 March 1996
180,644
339,905
348,606
520,549
869,155
31 March 1997
149,623
358,724
371,666
508,347
880,013
31 March 1998
100,238
342,250
324,113
442,488
766,601
31 March 1999
61,784
338,696
266,480
400,480
666,961
31 March 2000
27,322
290,001
185,634
317,323
502,957
31 March 2001
15,167
283,687
160,339
302,646
462,985


  We are currently attempting to find out the extent to which the fuel accounted for here was delivered into Sydenham alone. Once we have made further progress on this I will contact you.

16 January 2002


 
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