Home affairsLetter from Keith Bristow, Director General, National Crime Agency, to the Chair of the Committee, 15 October 2013

National Crime Agency

1. Further to your letter of 20 August, my reply of 18 September, and your subsequent letters of 8 October and 10 October, I am writing with further information about the establishment of National Crime Agency (NCA).

2. As per our discussion in session this afternoon, the NCA is unable to provide information about elements of the policing landscape which have not transferred to it. For this reason my letter of 18 September endeavoured to set out a clear position for the Committee only in respect of NCA and its precursors. On receipt of your letter of 8 October, I was of course anxious that the Committee should receive, in full, the information it required, and therefore to obtain your approval for the missing aspects to be dealt with by the Home Office, as policy lead. I had understood that this had been granted but clearly we misunderstood your position and requirements in this respect. I would like to apologise to the Committee for any inconvenience this has caused.

3. The three grids in question are contained as appendices to this letter, with appropriate information included.1 Your grid B did not set out a requirement for information related to UK Borders Agency or the Metropolitan Police Service. However, for completeness this is included in the amendments we have made to your grid A. Questions in Grid B relating to the wider policing landscape have been referred to Home Office Officials, who will be providing a separate response.

4. In addition, in your letter dated 10 October, sent by email on 14 October, you set out a number of further questions relating to the handling of information, and asked me to come equipped with answers to the session today. I trust that my response today was sufficient, but for clarity set out answers in writing below, using the numbers you have provided:

(11)Who now controls the files of previous investigations performed by SOCA?

All the intelligence and information held by SOCA, including in respect of previous investigations led by SOCA, has transferred to the NCA.

(12)Where are these files kept?

This information is stored on NCA systems in line with those contained in the Guidance on The Management of Police Information (2010) and the Authorised Professional Practice (APP) applied to police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

(13)How many files have been transferred over from SOCA?

Significant amounts of information and intelligence was transferred across from SOCA to the NCA. To give a give a sense of scale this relates to seven years of SOCA case work and intelligence, in addition to that which transferred into SOCA from its precursors. There are currently 37,000 individuals mapped under organised crime group mapping, and SOCA held information on each of these.

(14)Will there be a review of those files conducted by the NCA?

All information and intelligence held by the NCA is reviewed regularly in accordance with the NCA’s intelligence handling procedures.

(15)If so, when will this review take place?

The information will be reviewed on a rolling ongoing basis. For example where the information relates to an individual or organised crime group (OCG) that is included in organised crime group mapping (OCGM), and is still involved in organised crime, the information will be reviewed as part of the current operational activity against that individual or OCG.

(16)If so, who will conduct this review?

Information in respect of a mapped organised crime group or individual will be reviewed by the Senior Investigating Officer responsible for that OCG or individual.

5. Finally, I would like to thank you for your encouraging words about the NCA. I look forward to updating the Committee about our progress in the coming months and years.

Keith Bristow QPM
Director General
National Crime Agency

THE NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY

Director General: Keith Bristow.

Deputy Director General: Phil Gormley.

Director Operations: Trevor Pearce (Gary Chatfield, temp).

Director, Border Policing Command: David Armond.

Director, Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command: Peter Davies.

Director, Organised Crime Command (OCC): Gordon Meldrum.

Director, Economic Crime Command: Trevor Pearce (interim).

Director, Corporate Services: Stephen Webb (interim).

Director, Intelligence: Tim Symington.

The Agency will have approximately 4,890 post2s, plus volunteer “NCA Specials”.

201314 budget: £494m3.

Agency	Function	Location
SOCA 4,090 officers 201314 budget: £401m4 £16.6m5 Including staff and resource from CEOP and NPIA functions.	Preventing and detecting serious organised crime; and contributing to the reduction of such crime in other ways and to the mitigation of its consequences. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre was affiliated to SOCA and accountable through the SOCA Board.	Transferred to NCA (all Director areas)
National Police Improvement Agency 188 officers transferred into SOCA and are in the figure above. £10m, 2013–14 (net; included in SOCA budget above)	Proceeds of Crime Centre	Transferred to NCA (Economic Crime Command)
	Central Witness Bureau	Transferred to NCA (Operations)
	Crime Operational Support Unit	Transferred to NCA (Operations)
	Serious Crime Analysis section	Transferred to NCA (Operations)
	Specialist Operations Centre	Transferred to NCA (Operations)
	National Missing Persons Bureau	Transferred to NCA (Operations)
CEOP 109 officers (included in the SOCA figures above). £7m, 2013–14 (included in SOCA budget above)	Child protection	Transfer to NCA CEOP Command
UKBA 269 officers 201213 budget: £21m 6	Criminal and Financial Investigation (CFI) teams	Transferred to NCA (Border Policing Command)
Metropolitan Police Service 78 officers 201213 budget: £7m7	Police Central e-Crime Unit	Transfer to NCA (Operations—National Cyber Crime Unit)
	Counter-terrorism	No decision has been made on the future of counter-terrorism policing structures in England and Wales. The Home Secretary has been clear that any review will happen only after the NCA is established.