There is an urgent need for improvements to the Government's 'Tackling tobacco smuggling' strategy. It is a matter of grave concern that, despite an increase in the resources over the last three years the numbers of arrests, prosecutions and convictions for organised crime cases involving tobacco have all fallen. It is vital that there is no reduction in enforcement action. The time of Jamaica Inn is over and our fight against tobacco smuggling must be a priority. It is most surprising that no UK tobacco manufacturer has ever been fined for over-supply of products to high-risk overseas markets, and that only one statutory warning letter has been issued. The penalties available are too weak and enforcement too rare. An immediate review should be taken against all historic and ongoing cases in order to ensure those who have committed an offence do not go unpunished. The standardised packaging decision should be made on the basis of health. It is vital that consideration of the potential effects on smuggling is thorough and common sense steps are taken to ensure that criminal gangs do not profit from the Government's decision

The London Metropolitan Police Service reported in 2012, that they had identified 259 violent youth gangs and 4,800 'gang-nominals' in 19 gang-affected boroughs. Also in 2012, Greater Manchester Police identified 66 Urban Street Gangs and estimated the total number of gang members across Greater Manchester to be 886. The Office of the Children's Commissioner's 2013 inquiry into child sexual exploitation in gangs and groups found that 2,409 children and young people were subject to sexual exploitation in gangs and a further 16,500 children at risk, using a survey period of August 2010-October 2011. 21 police forces in England identified that they had criminally active gangs operating in their area. In total, individual forces reported 323 gangs as being criminally active, with 16 being associated with child sexual exploitation. In London between March 2013 and February 2014, only six per cent of stop-and-searches were conducted on females. London, while experiencing the most gang-related violence of any area in the country, has obtained only fourteen gang injunctions.

In order to monitor the effectiveness of its Reports, the Home Affairs Committee maintains a colour-coded grid of its recommendations. Recommendations are coded green if, in it's view, the Government has accepted them, red if they have been rejected, and yellow if they have been partially accepted, or if the Government has undertaken to give them further consideration. This Report covers the Committee's work in the 2012-13 Session. The Committee will use the grid to inform its choice of inquiries over the course of the Parliament, returning to earlier recommendations where it appears that there may be some merit in doing so, but avoiding reduplication of earlier work where it appears unlikely to prove beneficial

In 1998, the previous government abolished exit checks, paper-based embarkation records of passengers departing from the UK, because they were too resource intensive. Those universal exit checks were replaced by an intelligence-led approach, using CCTV and greater liaison between border agencies, port operators and transport carriers. This approach was subsequently superseded by the e-Borders programme, announced in February2005. The e-Borders programme has stalled and was "terminated" in March 2014 and that the Home Office would bereplacing individual systems, such as the Warnings Index and Semaphore, separately. At the moment, data for air passengers travelling in and out of the UK is sourced from carrier lists, known as Advanced Passenger Information (API). Air passengers buy tickets in advance and check in a reasonable time before departure, so API coverage is good, about 80% and increasing. Coverage is not so good for rail and ferry passengers, partly because of the ticketing systems and partly because customers can decide to travel, buy a ticket and have checked in at a time near to departure. Both the Minister and the Director General of Border Force have assured the Committee that 100% exit checks will be in place by 31st March 2015. To deliver exit checks, the Home Office needs to find a mechanism that can count all of the rail and maritime passengers as they depart the UK by the end of March. Exit checks will be carried out by the transport operators' staff, not Border Force. The Committee hope this can be delivered.

This report is a follow-up to the Committee's second report of session 2013-14. That report revealed results of an inquiry into children being treated in an appalling way not just by their abusers but, because of catastrophic failures by the very agencies that society has appointed to protect them. There is no mechanism at all to suspend or remove a Police and Crime Commissioner for behaviour which falls short of criminal. The current report includes a draft Bill which suggests mechanisms for removing PCCs from their post. It is vital that children's services are dramatically improved to prevent a similar situation from happening again. It was shocking that evidence of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham was ignored by both Rotherham Council and South Yorkshire Police. A number of individuals attempted to bring these crimes to light, only to face obstacles from the Council and Police which in some cases questioned their credibility and the veracity of their claims. If the Council and Police had taken these warnings seriously, the abusers could have been brought to justice more quickly and some of the later victims could have been spared their ordeal. The proliferation of revelations about files which can no longer be located gives rise to public suspicion of a deliberate cover-up. The only way to address these concerns is with a full, transparent and urgent investigation

This inquiry addresses police forces' use of RIPA powers to acquire communications data in the course of investigations. In two recent, high-profile cases, police have used RIPA powers to obtain material which might be regarded as journalistic material for the purposes of PACE. In the Metropolitan Police's Operation Alice (the investigation into the so-called "Plebgate" incident and subsequent events), the Metropolitan Police accessed a journalist's telephone records to establish whether the information provided to his newspaper might have emanated from within the MPS. In Kent Police's Operation Solar (the investigation into perversion of the course of justice by Constance Briscoe in relation to the trial of Rt Hon Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce) the police used RIPA powers to obtain material from Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) after an application by the police for access to the material under PACE had already failed because ANL had successfully claimed in court that journalistic privilege applied.

Since 2010 the Home Secretary has set out an ambitious plan for the new landscape of policing. However, more progress has to be made to declutter the landscape and ensure that the organisations created meet the rapidly evolving challenges facing 21st century policing. Force mergers are clearly back on the agenda. The College of Policing was a great idea that has both vision and purpose. However, numerous hurdles, weak foundations, and an unrepresentative board have hindered its ability to function to its full potential. In time, the College has the power to fashion a new concept of policing. For the local bobby, he or she needs a certificate of policing that is affordable, an oath that is binding and ethics that are ingrained within its DNA, and training that is practical, however at the moment none of this exists. The NCA has been a success, and has proved to be more responsive and more active than its predecessor SOCA, but it is not yet the FBI equivalent that it was hailed to be. Its reputation has been damaged by the unacceptably slow response to the backlog of child abuse cases sent to it by Toronto Police. The NCA must establish practical benchmarks against which its performance can be assessed. Its current asset recovery is not of a sufficient volume when set against its half a billion pound budget.