County Lines Programme data
Updated 15 March 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-offices-county-lines-programme-data/county-lines-programme-data
This note provides a summary of the activity of the County Lines Programme since its launch in November 2019 with supplementary material to support the interpretation of the headline figures.
The Home Office launched the County Lines Programme to tackle the harmful and exploitative drug supply model. The Programme includes investment in law enforcement intensification, primarily focused in the police force areas from which the majority of county lines originate (referred to as ‘exporter forces’) and in the British Transport Police.
These figures have been collated using self-reported management information from individual forces and the National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC). Figures have been quality assured by forces, however they may be subject to improvements and change.
Figures reported
Type 1 line closures
Type 1 line closures refer to the closure of a county line through the arrest and charge of a line holder. NCLCC determines when a type 1 line was closed by using evidence that the controlling gang is no longer capable of distributing drugs using that telephone number, with check backs to ensure the telephone number remains out of use.
Type 2 line closures
Type 2 line closures refer to the closure of a county line through the deactivation of a phone line/number/SIM associated with the line.
Arrests
The number of arrests refer to arrests made through police activity that can be attributed to the County Lines Programme i.e. those that would not have happened in the absence of County Lines Programme funding.
Individuals referred for safeguarding
The number of individuals referred for safeguarding are defined as those that were referred as a result of County Lines Programme-funded activity to specialist support providers or statutory safeguarding partners i.e. those that would not have happened in the absence of County Lines funding.
Line holders charged through Type 1 line closures
Type 1 line closures include the charge of a line holder. However, some line holders control multiple county lines, so one line closure does not necessarily equate to one line holder charged. This statistic captures the total number of line holders charged through Type 1 line closures by the County Lines Programme taskforces since the Drug Strategy funding was established in April 2022.
County Lines Programme taskforce results
The County Lines Programme taskforces refer to the Metropolitan Police Service, Merseyside Police, West Midlands Police and British Transport Police. From April 2022, figures reported also include activity from Greater Manchester Police, who were added to the Programme as an additional taskforce.
|
November 2019 to March 2020 |
April 2020 to March 2021 |
April 2021 to March 2022 |
April 2022 to March 2023 |
April 2023 to December 2023 |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Line closures |
Type 1 |
139 |
643 |
703 |
1,364 |
1,166 |
|
Type 2 |
531 |
53 |
66 |
|||
| Arrests |
657 |
2,597 |
2,225 |
2,661 |
2,308 |
|
| Individuals referred for safeguarding |
163 |
687 |
2,280 |
3,235 |
2,452 |
|
| Line holders charged through Type 1 line closures |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
1,079 |
874 |
County Lines Programme Surge Fund results
The County Lines Programme Surge Fund is an additional funding stream for other forces, dating back to the beginning of the Programme funding. Forces in England and Wales that are not already receiving dedicated funding from the County Lines Programme can bid for surge funding to support operational efforts to tackle their local county lines threat. Surge Fund line closures and arrests (prior to April 2021) and safeguarding referrals cannot be deconflicted from the Programme taskforce results and therefore are not reported to avoid the risk of double counting.
| April 2021 to March 2022 | April 2022 to March 2023 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Line closures | Type 1 | 353 | 431 |
| Type 2 | 69 | 109 | |
| Arrests | 2,582 | 3,506 | |
Summary of information
The figures show that since the County Lines Programme launched in 2019:
- 5,627 county lines have been closed
- 16,536 people have been arrested
- 8,817 individuals have been referred by police to safeguarding
This includes 2,530 Type 1 line closures by the Programme taskforces since April 2022, against the commitment made in HMG’s 2021 Drugs Strategy to close over 2,000 by April 2025. Through these line closures, 1,953 individual line holders have been arrested and charged.
As the Government met the line closure target early, it has now committed to close a further 1,000 lines by August 2024, bringing the total since the Drugs Strategy was launched in April 2022 to over 3,000.
Further information on reported figures
Line closures
The differentiation between types of line closure (Type 1 and Type 2 ) can only be made from 2021/22 onwards. From April 2022, Type 1 line closures were prioritised by police to align with the ambitions set out in the Government’s Drugs Strategy, published in December 2021.
Arrests
The arrests reported include but are not limited to those for: drug supply offences, possession of weapons offences, modern slavery offences, and violence offences.
Individuals referred for safeguarding
The safeguarding figures reported for 2021/22 excludes an additional 6,585 individuals who attended mass participation safeguarding sessions (such as presentations at school assemblies by the county lines taskforces) which was not reported in other years. Inclusion of this additional group of safeguarded individuals brings up the total number of individuals engaged through safeguarding interventions in 2021/22 to 8,865 and the total since 2019 to 15,402.
Line holders charged through Type 1 line closures
The number of individual line holders charged through Type 1 line closures has only been collected since the Drugs Strategy funding was established in April 2022. This metric demonstrates the impact of the Drug Strategy line closure target on drug dealers.
Footnotes
1. The County Lines Programme began in quarter 3 of financial year 2019/2020.
2. Figures shown under the subheading ‘Summary of information’ include both Taskforces and Surge Fund Programme results.