St Giles welcomes the Government’s announcement today (3 June) of new legislation that makes it a specific offence to coerce vulnerable individuals into concealing drugs inside their bodies.
For nearly 20 years, we have supported children and young people exploited through county lines and gang activity. We have witnessed firsthand the horrific physical and emotional toll that forced concealment takes on those targeted.
This practice — often linked to county lines drug trafficking — involves criminals pressuring or forcing young people and vulnerable adults to hide items such as drugs in their bodies, including in rectums, vaginas, or by swallowing them. As well as the risk of serious physical harm, the psychological impact is profound, often resulting in anxiety, trauma, and flashbacks that require specialist, long-term support.
Through our services, including hospital-based violence reduction work, St Giles teams provide trauma-informed support to young people affected by this form of exploitation. In the last financial year (April 2024–March 2025), we supported 869 young people to reduce their involvement in child criminal exploitation, gangs and county lines.
St Giles Chief Executive Tracey Burley said:
This is a very welcome measure. But just as crucially we need to ensure that preventative measures stop these tragedies happening in the first place. This involves funding services providing early interventions such as mentoring and work in schools to raise awareness and help children build resilience, alongside wider violence reduction work.
She continued:
We are working hard with our partners to provide specialist help to children and young people who have sadly become victims of Child Criminal Exploitation. By providing care and support from someone who has lived experience of the situations of the young person they are working with, we can provide credible interventions which have a real impact. Just as importantly, we are utilising our lived experience approach to intervene early and keep young people safe.