Crime and Courts Act 2013

1 The National Crime Agency

(1) A National Crime Agency, consisting of the NCA officers, is to be formed.

(2) The NCA is to be under the direction and control of one of the NCA officers, who is to be known as the Director General of the National Crime Agency.

(3) The NCA is to have—

(a) the functions conferred by this section;

(b) the functions conferred by the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002; and

(c) the other functions conferred by this Act and by other enactments.

(4) The NCA is to have the function (the “crime-reduction function”) of securing that efficient and effective activities to combat organised crime and serious crime are carried out (whether by the NCA, other law enforcement agencies, or other persons).

(5) The NCA is to have the function (the “criminal intelligence function”) of gathering, storing, processing, analysing, and disseminating information that is relevant to any of the following—

(a) activities to combat organised crime or serious crime;

(b) activities to combat any other kind of crime;

(c) exploitation proceeds investigations (within the meaning of section 341(5) of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002), exploitation proceeds orders (within the meaning of Part 7 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009), and applications for such orders.

(6) The NCA must discharge the crime-reduction function in the following ways (in particular).

(7) The first way is by the NCA itself—

(a) preventing and detecting organised crime and serious crime,

(b) investigating offences relating to organised crime or serious crime, and

(c) otherwise carrying out activities to combat organised crime and serious crime, including by instituting criminal proceedings in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.

(8) The second way is by the NCA securing that activities to combat organised crime or serious crime are carried out by persons other than the NCA.

(9) The third way is by the NCA securing improvements—

(a) in co-operation between persons who carry out activities to combat organised crime or serious crime, and

(b) in co-ordination of activities to combat organised crime or serious crime.

(10) The crime-reduction function does not include—

(a) the function of the NCA itself prosecuting offences; or

(b) the function of the NCA itself instituting criminal proceedings in Scotland.

(11) In this Part, a reference to activities to combat crime (or a particular kind of crime, such as organised crime or serious crime) is a reference to—

(a) the prevention and detection of crime (or that kind of crime),

(b) the investigation and prosecution of offences (or offences relating to that kind of crime),

(c) the reduction of crime (or that kind of crime) in other ways, and

(d) the mitigation of the consequences of crime (or that kind of crime);

and references to the carrying out of activities to combat crime (or a particular kind of crime) are to be construed accordingly.

(12) Schedule 1 (the NCA & NCA officers) has effect.