Operational priorities for year ahead set out in National Crime Agency’s Annual Plan 2019-2020
Informed by an enhanced understanding of the evolving threat to the UK from serious and organised crime, the Annual Plan sets out the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) operational priorities and how it will lead a ‘whole system’ response towards serious and organised crime.
Across the last 12 months working with partners, the NCA has “made significant progress” in the fight against serious and organised crime. Chief among developments was the launch of the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), which has had an instant impact in enhancing response to economic crime, maximising the value of intelligence, prioritising threats and tasking and co-ordinating resources to ensure the greatest possible impact.
The NCA has harnessed the collective powers of law enforcement, Government, the voluntary sector and industry to co-ordinate the response needed to protect communities from the escalating and evolving threat posed by serious and organised crime.
It’s recognised that a sustained funding model for the system as a whole is essential if the NCA is to keep pace with the fast-changing nature of serious and organised crime, whose scale and complexity were highlighted by the Government’s 2018 strategy designed to address this matter.
The NCA comments: “The Government’s investment in our capacity to tackle illicit finance for 2019-2020 is a welcome start. We have a Capability Strategy in place aimed at identifying important gaps to ensure we develop a whole system response to serious and organised crime. We know from the work undertaken to date that significant further investment will be required to ensure we can deliver on our combined ambition.”
The 2019 Spending Review provides the NCA and its partners with a vital opportunity to build on the Government’s investment in the serious and organised crime system and enhance the organisation’s ability to tackle this issue.