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National Crime Agency details to be outlined National Crime Agency details outlined by Theresa May
(about 9 hours later)
Details of how the proposed National Crime Agency will operate when it is set up next year are to be unveiled. The proposed National Crime Agency, to replace the Serious Organised Crime Agency, will have the authority to instruct police and other agencies, the home secretary has told the Commons.
It will replace the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) covering drugs and gun crime, and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre. Theresa May said it would put right a "patchy... response" to dealing with organised crime and border control.
Plans for it to absorb the Serious Fraud Office were reportedly dropped. The agency will have the power to step in to coordinate police work and identify national priorities, she said.
With policing devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Home Office is expected to explain how the NCA will liaise with forces across the UK. Its officers will have powers "beyond" those of the police, she said.
Last month BBC business editor Robert Peston reported that Home Secretary Theresa May had been forced by her cabinet colleagues to back down on her plans to break up the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Wide-range of powers
He reported that the home secretary wanted to put the lawyers who front the organisation into the Crown Prosecution Service and its investigators into the NCA. Mrs May told MPs that organised crime cost up to £40bn a year, with around 38,000 people and 6,000 gangs operating in the UK.
But when she presented her proposals to cabinet colleagues the discussion that followed was "exceptionally difficult" and there was almost no support for the break-up of the SFO. However, only 11% of those gangs were being hit "in a meaningful way" by law enforcement agencies, she said.
The NCA will have a chief constable and two key "commands" - one focusing on organised crime and the other on border policing. As well as replacing the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), the new agency will take in the work of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop), and also house the national cyber crime unit. It will also cover border policing and economic crime.
'Radical' police reform It will be led by a senior chief constable and two key "commands" - one focusing on organised crime and the other on border policing.
It will have its own officers but will also be involved in the "tasking" of local forces who are involved in the same kind of work. For instance, there are 3,000 officers around the UK involved in border work. Mrs May said the new body would have the authority to "undertake tasking and coordination, ensuring appropriate action is taken to put a stop to the activities of organised crime groups".
This model is considered to have worked successfully in counter-terrorism, where there is a national co-ordinator in the Metropolitan Police who draws on teams based in forces around the UK. It will step in "to directly task where there are disputes about the nature of approach or ownership".
The home secretary told the BBC the new agency would be a "powerful crime-fighting body" able to help police to put a greater focus on organised crime - such as drugs, people trafficking and prostitution - at a regional, national and international level. 'All suffer'
She said for too long there had not been "sufficient focus" on organised crime. "NCA officers will be able to draw on a wide range of powers, including those of a police constable, immigration or customs powers," Mrs May said.
BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) was generally "supportive" of the move and saw it as an improvement on Soca, which was perceived to be "rather opaque and secretive". "This will mean that NCA officers - unlike anybody else - will be able to deploy powers and techniques that go beyond the powers of a police officer."
However, our correspondent said there were also "questions about resources at a time of budget cuts". The NCA's budget will not exceed that of the agencies it replaces, and about £3m of government funding has been committed "for the national coordination of organised crime policing" in 2011/12, including an intelligence centre.
Earlier, the home secretary told the BBC the new agency would be a "powerful crime-fighting body" able to help police to put a greater focus on organised crime - such as drugs, people trafficking and prostitution - at a regional, national and international level.
'Badly handled'
Chief Constable Jon Murphy, the lead on crime for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said the NCA was "an opportunity to raise our game against some of the most harmful and dangerous individuals in the UK".
"Good neighbourhood policing provides eyes and ears on the streets and, along with hi-tech methods of policing, is just as important in providing the intelligence that police need to get to grips with serious and organised crime," he said.
"This is why the fight against these threats must engage law enforcement collectively and collaboratively at every level."
But shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper branded the creation of the NCA as a "chaotic and confusing process, with a lack of leadership from the Home Office".
"This has been so badly handled, it's caused real problems for the police.
"For the renamed national crime agency to be successful, it needs steady leadership, clarity and the resources to deliver. In the end reorganisation is no substitute for police officers on the ground doing the job."
Details of an extensive policing shake-up, which included the creation of the National Crime Agency, were unveiled last year by Mrs May in a Home Office consultation paper - Policing in the 21st century.Details of an extensive policing shake-up, which included the creation of the National Crime Agency, were unveiled last year by Mrs May in a Home Office consultation paper - Policing in the 21st century.
She described it as the "most radical reform of policing for 50 years".She described it as the "most radical reform of policing for 50 years".
Peter Neyroud, former head of the National Police Improvement Agency, said he supported the principle of one body covering organised crime.
He said Soca had a "tight focus" and other bodies, particularly in the field of economic crime, had "grown up in parallel", so he could understand the need to create a new, single body.
Flip-flopping fear
However, Mr Neyroud said it was important that the National Crime Agency remained in place for some time.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It is absolutely critical that this is a stable organisation which will last more than four or five years.
"Otherwise, how do you build international relationships with agencies across the world in order to tackle serious and organised crime if we keep flip-flopping from one organisation to another?"
He said constant changes were demoralising for staff and the cost attached to changing from Soca could cost about £20m.
Soca was criticised in 2009 when figures showed that for every £15 of public money it spent, just £1 was recovered from criminals.Soca was criticised in 2009 when figures showed that for every £15 of public money it spent, just £1 was recovered from criminals.
Child protection 'dilution'
Ceop was set up in 2006 to help find and convict paedophiles and work to keep young people safe from predators when they are online.Ceop was set up in 2006 to help find and convict paedophiles and work to keep young people safe from predators when they are online.
Earlier this year, Jim Gamble, the former head of Ceop, suggested children could be put at risk by the planned reforms.
He said the plans were driven not by what was best for children but by the drive for a "bonfire of the quangos".
And Claude Knights, from child protection charity Kidscape, also expressed concerns about the new body, saying she was concerned by what she considered to be a "dilution" of the child protection strategy.
"We have had some brilliant results over the last five years. The tireless efforts have led to the saving of over 1,000 children from paedophiles and the busting of many paedophile rings because of that very, very focused approach," she said.