Police Act 1997

2 General functions of the NCIS Service Authority and NCIS

(1) The NCIS Service Authority shall maintain a body to be known as the National Criminal Intelligence Service (in this Part referred to as “NCIS”).

(2) The functions of NCIS shall be—

(a) to gather, store and analyse information in order to provide criminal intelligence,

(b) to provide criminal intelligence to police forces in Great Britain, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the National Crime Squad and other law enforcement agencies, and

(c) to act in support of such police forces, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the National Crime Squad and other law enforcement agencies carrying out their criminal intelligence activities.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), “law enforcement agency” includes—

(a) any government department,

(b) the States of Jersey Police Force, the salaried police force of the Island of Guernsey and the Isle of Man Constabulary,

(c) any other person charged with the duty of investigating offences or charging offenders, and

(d) any other person engaged outside the United Kingdom in the carrying on of activities similar to any carried on by the NCIS Service Authority, NCIS, a police authority, a police force, the NCS Service Authority or the National Crime Squad.

(4) In discharging its functions, the NCIS Service Authority shall have regard to—

(a) any objectives determined by the Secretary of State under section 26,

(b) any objectives determined by the Authority under section 3,

(c) any performance targets established by the Authority, whether in compliance with a direction under section 27 or otherwise, and

(d) any service plan issued by the Authority under section 4.

(5) In discharging any function to which a code of practice issued under section 28 relates, the NCIS Service Authority shall have regard to the code.

(6) The NCIS Service Authority shall comply with any direction given to it by the Secretary of State under section 27 or 30 or under Schedule 3.