Home Affairs CommitteeSupplementary written evidence submitted by the National Crime Agency [LSP 18a]

EMAIL FROM NATIONAL CRIME AGENCY TO THE COMMITTEE, 25 OCTOBER 2012

Keith Bristow’s Evidence Session

Keith Bristow said he would go back to the Committee in response to Steve McCabe’s questions around £3 million funding for coordinating intelligence around organised crime in the last financial year. The response on that point should be as follows:

“The National Crime Agency as such would not have been given any money to coordinate intelligence in the last financial year. We believe that the £3 million figure quoted by Steve McCabe MP refers to a range of funding that was budgeted by the Home Office in 2011–12 to cover organised crime coordination more broadly, including the Organised Crime Coordination Centre (OCCC) housed within SOCA.

The Organised Crime Coordination Centre is a key building block for the National Crime Agency’s Intelligence Hub. It is already in place and is being developed with partner agencies; enabling police forces and other law enforcement partners to identify linkages between organised crime groups and agree the best approach for tackling them.

Although Home Office funding was set aside in 2011–12, the OCCC was ultimately funded from within SOCA’s budget that year. In 2012–13, the Home Office has budgeted £1.958 million of additional funding to support the operation of the OCCC. In addition to this, SOCA also supports the OCCC from their ongoing budget in terms of providing officers and staff, premises and IT.”

National Crime Agency

October 2012