British National Crime Agency, responsible for combating cybercrime, ‘down to earth’, warns report

The National Crime Agency (NCA), once hailed as Britain's elite law enforcement response to serious and organised crime, including cybercrime, is “in ruins”, according to a new report.

The agency is facing a critical “brain drain” as senior and experienced staff are leaving the company in large numbers, the “Spotlight on Corruption” report warned on Monday. Particular concern was expressed that the NCA is losing “almost a fifth of its cyber capacity every year”.

Such a high number of unfilled positions – which the report says is due to a broken salary system – has the side effect of increasing costs even more than a significant salary increase would have, because the agency is forced to hire temporary workers and consultants, who now account for more than ten percent of its budget.

The report called on the government to reform the agency quickly and invest sufficiently: “Now is a critical moment. If the NCA is to fulfil its role and protect the UK from hostile threats, fraud and corruption, and serious organised crime more generally, comprehensive reforms are needed, particularly in pay and working conditions.”

The new British Labour government campaigned this year on the issue of overhauling the public sector, which has faced a number of challenges and funding shortages since the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent austerity measures imposed by the Conservative Party.

“Like other public sector workers, NCA officers' pay has stagnated after a decade of public sector pay freezes and has been eroded by high inflation since 2022,” the report said. “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 non-profit civil society group, acknowledged that “while the NCA’s pay problems were not an isolated case in the public sector, for an agency tasked with protecting the public… the consequences of failing to comply with [them] are potentially catastrophic.”

Although the NCA is sometimes referred to as the UK's FBI – even if its remit and role within the UK's law enforcement agencies are slightly different – ​​there are significant differences between the two agencies.

“Becoming an FBI agent is a highly attractive career move for state and local law enforcement officers who are motivated by the FBI's mission to fight crime but are also attracted to the agency because of its competitive pay and benefits and increased opportunities for professional advancement,” the report said.

It pointed to the FBI's “extraordinarily low” staff turnover, which will be just 1.7% in 2023, and the salary differences between FBI agents and their British counterparts: “The FBI's starting salary is just £12,759 ($16,700) less than the £77,559 ($101,500) received by a senior manager at the highest level of service in the NCA.”

In contrast, in the UK, serving police officers would have to accept a reduction in pay and benefits if they joined the NCA, and there are no comparable annual pay increases “within pay grade” in recognition of their performance.

Whoever says A also says B

The growth of online commerce and connectivity since 2008 has been accompanied by a rise in cybercrime, including online fraud. Fraud currently accounts for almost 40% of all crime reported in the UK, with more than half of it committed online.

Law enforcement officials say tackling this problem requires more than just funding their own agencies. As the NCA's National Economic Crime Centre told Parliament, increased funding is needed across the criminal justice system.

What is particularly egregious, however, is the scale of criminality facing the NCA. Parliament's Joint Committee on National Security concluded in its own inquiry into the ransomware threat that the NCA “does not have sufficient resources and capabilities to meet the scale of this challenge”.

While the NCA has had some spectacular successes in combating ransomware following that investigation – notably in disrupting LockBit – the agency's director general, Graeme Biggar, admitted at a press conference in London: “If we had more resources, we could do more.”

A government spokesman said: “The National Crime Agency plays a critical role in tackling organised criminal gangs and this government is committed to investing in the National Crime Agency and its staff to ensure it has the capacity and capabilities to tackle the growing threats.”

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

The spokesman added: “Last month we announced the recruitment of 100 additional National Crime Agency officers who will work with partners across Europe to disrupt the criminal smuggling gangs who commit dangerous small boat crossings. This number is in addition to the 50 per cent increase in NCA officers based at Europol.”