National Crime Agency no longer elite crime fighting force, report says

The National Crime Agency (NCA) was long considered as the United Kingdom’s elite crime fighting force, being at the forefront of the fight against cybercrime, corruption, money laundering, and fraud. However, the British law enforcement agency is currently “on its knees”.

That’s the harsh reality according to a new report that was published by Spotlight on Corruption, a nonprofit organization which focuses on financial corruption.

The unwillingness of consecutive governments to invest in the NCA, has created and aggravated persistent problems, which have reduced the agency’s crime fighting capabilities.

“Despite its best efforts, the agency risks operating continually at suboptimal levels due to staffing shortages, chronic retention and recruitment problems, and low staff morale,” the report says.

According to researchers, morale and job satisfaction at the NCA is the lowest among all surveyed government organizations. Employees experience a heavy workload and over half of all the NCA’s officers (59 percent) feel unsatisfied with pay and benefits, with little chance of career promotion.

“Morale at the NCA is close to rock bottom. The agency is struggling to recruit and keep staff,” researchers conclude.

Spotlight on Corruption says that the NCA has arrived at a pivotal moment. Without major reforms and investments, the NCA’s ability to protect the public against organized crime will be critically compromised.

“While the NCA’s pay issues are not unique within the public sector, for an agency tasked with protecting the public from these threats, the implications of not addressing the NCA’s pay issues are potentially catastrophic,” the interest group explains.

“The question for the new government is not whether it can afford to invest in pay reform at the NCA, but whether it can afford not to if it really wants the NCA to protect the public from the threats that Britain faces,” researchers add.

Spotlight on Corruption has come up with three recommendations. Firstly, the government must decide whether the NCA needs an organizational reform to create a more flexible workforce for the future to protect the public.

Furthermore, the government must invest in the NCA for a ‘speedy and ambitious’ pay reform programme. Lastly, the government needs to invest in the NCA’s technological capabilities to tackle online crime.

“If the government wants the NCA to be at the forefront of tackling the range of threats and challenges the UK faces, from organized immigration gangs to hostile and corrupt states, it needs to put its money where its mouth is. The NCA for too long has been forced to operate at sub-par because of lack of sufficient investment. It desperately needs a new injection of cash to fund major pay reform and cutting-edge technology,” Executive Director at Spotlight on Corruption and co-author of the report Susan Hawley says.