Q30 Mr. Dave Anderson: I asked you earlier in the House about people who are on the run from terrorists and what their rights would be. You made the point in the House that it seems not necessarily to have stopped, but certainly to have calmed down. What about people who want to come back home and are not being allowed to come back home by terrorists? What have you put in place to answer that question, because clearly that is another wrong which should be put right and it goes some way to making people feel there is some balance in the situation?

Mr Hain: It is. What we need in many of these communities, Republican especially in this case, but Loyalist as well, because some Loyalists have been exiled too, is a complete change in culture in the communities; for example, some of the treatment of the McCartney sisters and the McCartney family is outrageous, living in Republican communities and recently having to move out of the Short Strand because of intimidation within the community. We need a complete culture change on this and that affects exiling as well. This is something which we have in our sights and we shall be pursuing. To my knowledge - and the IMC has certainly not reported on it; I have not received any reports to that effect either since the period covered by the IMC - there has been no exiling since 28 July.

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Q71 Mr. Dave Anderson: We met last week with the organised crime task force and a number of the issues raised were really worrying. They raised the issue of the illegal fuel smuggling. I was not aware of the size of the problem. I saw a report in Friday's Belfast Telegraph which said that in the four years, 2000-2003, the total was £1.4 billion. I am not quite sure what the budget is in Northern Ireland but that would go a long, long way. What is being done to address the problem? I know it has been raised in this Committee before and has been raised by the IMC before. What, if anything, is being done?

Mr Hain: A great deal is being done by the organised crime task force and just over the past year 28 top level organised crime gangs were disrupted or dismantled, assets totalling nearly £12 million restrained or confiscated, drugs worth around £9.5 million seized, counterfeit goods worth around £7 million seized and legitimate fuel deliveries increased by 6%. As I told the House today in Northern Ireland Question, we have increasing success in cracking down but there is a long way to go on petrol smuggling. We have 160 or so customs officers dedicated to breaking up the criminal gangs involved in oil frauds. We are moving forward on all of this and the Assets Recovery Agency recently moved quite significantly forward on this. Indeed over the last six months it has seen nearly £1 million of assets seized from criminals associated with Loyalist groups involved in drugs, blackmail and counterfeit goods. There is quite a lot of progress on this and we intend to drive it forward.

Q72 Mr. Dave Anderson: Coming back to fuel, the report this week suggests that both Governments should introduce licence regimes which will enable a quota of businesses to be involved in the trade. Has there been any discussion so far on that?

Mr Hain: That is something we are looking at. Local councils do have powers to stop smuggling and we are working with them to implement those powers. We are very happy to consider changes, including those recommended by the IMC, to extend those powers if necessary.

Promoted by Paul Foy on behalf of Dave Anderson, both of St Cuthbert's Church Hall, Shibdon Road, Blaydon, NE21 5PT