UK National Crime Agency, responsible for fighting cybercrime, ‘on its knees,’ warns report

The National Crime Agency (NCA), once heralded as British law enforcement’s elite answer to the questions posed by serious and organized crime, including cybercrime, is “on its knees” according to a new report.

The agency is facing a critical “braindrain” with senior and experienced staff leaving in large numbers, warned the Spotlight on Corruption report on Monday, with particular concern expressed about the NCA losing “nearly a fifth of its cyber capacity annually.”

Such a large number of vacancies — which the report says is caused by a broken pay system — has had the knock-on effect of driving costs up even more than a significant pay rise because the agency has been forced to bring in temporary labor and consultants who now represent more than 10% of its budget.

The report called for the government to quickly reform the agency and provide adequate investment: “A critical moment has now arrived. If the NCA is to deliver on its mission to protect the UK from hostile threats, fraud and corruption, and serious organised crime more generally, major reform, particularly to pay and conditions, is needed.”

Britain’s new Labour government campaigned during this year’s general election on fixing the state of the country’s public sector, which has faced a series of challenges and funding shortages following the financial crisis of 2008 and the Conservative Party’s subsequent austerity measures.

“Like other public sector workers, NCA officers’ pay has stagnated following a decade of public sector pay freezes and has been eroded by high inflation since 2022,” stated the report. “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.”

Lessons from the FBI

Spotlight on Corruption, a nonprofit  civil society group, acknowledged that while “the NCA’s pay issues were not unique within the public sector, for an agency tasked with protecting the public … the implications of not addressing [them] are potentially catastrophic.”

While the NCA is sometimes described as Britain’s FBI — although its remit and role within the British law enforcement community is somewhat different — there are stark differences between the agencies.

“Being an FBI agent is a highly desirable career move for state and local police officers who are motivated by the bureau’s mission to tackle crime, but who are also drawn to the agency because of the attractive pay and benefits and better opportunities for professional growth,” stated the report.

It noted the “extraordinarily low” turnover rate in staff at the FBI of just 1.7% in 2023 and the disparity in pay between FBI agents and their British counterparts: “The FBI’s starting salary is only £12,759 ($16,700) less than the £77,559 ($101,500) that a senior manager on the NCA’s highest rung for officers is paid.”

In contrast, serving police officers in Britain “would have to take a pay and benefits cut to join the NCA” and there are no comparable annual “within grade” pay increases in recognition of performance.

In for a penny

The growth of online commerce and connectivity since 2008 has been accompanied by a surge in cybercrime, including online fraud. Fraud currently accounts for almost 40% of all reported crime in Britain, more than half of which is conducted online.

Law enforcement officials say tackling this requires more than just funding their own agencies. As the NCA’s National Economic Crime Centre told Parliament, funding increases are needed across the whole of the criminal justice system.

But the levels of criminality the NCA is responsible for facing are particularly egregious. Parliament’s joint committee on national security, concluding its own inquiry into the threat posed by ransomware, found that the NCA had “insufficient resources and capabilities to match the scale of this challenge.”

While the NCA has had some high-profile successes tackling ransomware following that inquiry — particularly in disrupting LockBit — at a press event in London, the agency’s director-general, Graeme Biggar, acknowledged: “If we had more resources, we’d be able to do more.”

A government spokesperson said: “The National Crime Agency plays a vital role in tackling organised criminal gangs, and this Government is committed to investing in the National Crime Agency and its people to ensure that it has the capacity and capability to tackle growing threats.”

Although the Spotlight on Corruption report did not cite the problem of small boat crossings in the English Channel, the agency has become the new government’s focus for tackling this crisis. Six children and a pregnant woman were among the 12 who died attempting to make the crossing from France last week.

The spokesperson added: “Last month, we announced 100 extra National Crime Agency officers who will work with partners across Europe to smash the criminal smuggling gangs that are driving dangerous small boat crossings, which is on top of the 50% uplift in NCA officers stationed in Europol.”