Tackling serious and organised crime

The Department should accelerate its work to measure the impact of the collective efforts of government and law enforcement bodies on the prevalence of serious and organised crime. The Department and the NCA have been developing a new performance framework since 2017 but still lack the right information to know whether efforts are working. The Department should bring this development to a quick conclusion and decide on the indicators and information it needs to measure success consistently.

Ref Page 14, point a · Implemented 11/2020

The Department should continue to support organisations to tackle the underlying causes of serious and organised crime. In 2015-16, 4% of the front-line spending on tackling serious and organised crime was estimated to have been spent on Prevent activities, compared with 79% on Pursue activities. The Department should ensure it supports partner organisations to rebalance their efforts by improving the evidence base on what preventative activities work, sharing this evidence base widely and regularly, and using funding to incentivise organisations.

Ref Page 14, point b · Implemented 11/2020

The Department and the NCA should build on initial work to agree a more efficient way to distribute and share capabilities across government and law enforcement bodies. Capabilities have been inconsistently developed and often unnecessarily duplicated across bodies. The Department and the NCA should give clear direction on who should hold which capabilities to make the best use of limited resources to ensure that those capabilities are focused on tackling the greatest threats.

Ref Page 14, point c · Implemented Spring 2022

The NCA should assess how well its new approach to identifying priority areas is directing resources to address the highest risks and threats. Between April and September 2018, the NCA, ROCUs and forces disrupted more crimes that were not a priority than crimes that were considered priority threats. The NCA should carry out an early review of its new approach to prioritising and delegating work to ensure law enforcement activity focuses on its priority threats.

Ref Page 15, point d · Implemented 06/2022

The Department’s work to change how it funds efforts to tackle serious and organised crime should focus on streamlining processes and giving greater certainty to organisations. Funding for serious and organised crime comes from multiple sources that are subject to annual bidding and decision processes and often paid late. The Department should ensure any changes it makes in the forthcoming Spending Review will rationalise funding sources and give organisations longer notice over future funding to allow them to plan more effectively.

Ref Page 15, point e · Implemented 06/2022

The government should review the effectiveness of accountability arrangements and address weaknesses as it implements its strategy. Accountability involves being responsible or answerable to someone for some action. Good governance is a core element of accountability. Governance arrangements for those tackling serious and organised crime are complex and the overall accountability framework is weak. Once the Department has finalised its plan for implementing the strategy, it should review how changes to its governance arrangements are working, including reviewing the Strategic Policing Requirement, which sets out the threats that require a coordinated policing response.

Ref Page 15, point f, part 1 · Implemented 06/2022

It should review how performance data are used, and the success of the SRO in getting others across government and law enforcement to meet the strategy’s objectives.

Ref Page 15, point f, part 2 · Implemented 06/2022