Member

The noble Lord and others have vividly reminded us of the BBC’s in-depth investigations, and it was genuinely shocking to see what was happening in many high streets throughout the country. One thing that stood out for me was when one of the trading standards officers went on record to say, “We’re losing the war against the criminal gangs”. It seems to me that if we are losing the war, we should fight the battle. We need to do something. We cannot just say, “We’re losing the war”, and then pass a law that could make it worse. That is a defeatist attitude. In that sense, I regard this as a useful thing: the Government would surely benefit from a legislative tool to strengthen enforcement action against those criminals trading in illegal tobacco and so on, and to clamp down on the rogues.