National Crime Agency Becomes Operational

The UK's response to the threat from serious and organised crime will be transformed today as the new National Crime Agency (NCA) becomes operational.

For the first time, a single law enforcement agency will be responsible for leading the national response to cut serious and organised crime - from smashing multi-million pound, cross-border criminal networks and gangs and cracking intricate global cyber-crime, to tracking down child sex abusers in the hidden web and uncovering some of the most complex international fraud.

The NCA will use its 4,000 plus officers to harness the expertise and resources of law enforcement across the UK and abroad, to ensure a consistent and co-ordinated approach to continuously disrupt the most serious criminals and groups.

It will hold the single authoritative intelligence picture of serious and organised crime affecting the United Kingdom, and have the mandate and powers to lead and co-ordinate the police and other law enforcement agencies.

The NCA will lead the whole of the UK's fight to cut serious and organised crime, ensuring that such criminals and criminal groups are prioritised and that proportionate operational activity and disruption is directed against them, both at home and overseas.

The Agency will comprise four commands: Organised Crime, Economic Crime, Border Policing and CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) and have a National Cyber Crime Unit to reflect the broad range of threats that are posed by serious and organised criminals.

Keith Bristow, Director General of the National Crime Agency said: "The NCA is a UK-wide crime-fighting agency, which will have the capability to tackle serious and organised crime in areas that have previously had a fragmented response, such as the border, cyber and economic crime, and those where we need to increase our impact, like child protection and human trafficking.

"The NCA will be at the centre of a reformed policing landscape that will co-ordinate the fight against some of the United Kingdom’s most sophisticated and harmful criminals."

(CD/IT)