County Lines intelligence missed from national plan due to BTP sharing failures

BTP was the only force in the country not providing intelligence assessments to the National Crime Agency (NCA) despite its ability to ‘enhance the picture’ around serious and organised crime, according to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).

Inspectors claim this “undermines the NCA’s ability to provide the single authoritative picture of threat” and called on Chief Constable Paul Crowther to start sharing intelligence immediately.

Similar issues were identified with regional organised crime units (ROCUs) and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), although the PSNI has now put plans in place to address the issue.

A BTP spokesperson said strategic profiles were being sent through the wrong channel and the problem has now been resolved.

The HMICFRS report says: “We raised the lack of intelligence sharing with British Transport Police and the NCA, and, at the time of writing this report, we had established that British Transport Police was engaged in work to tackle this type of criminality.

“However, the NCA confirmed that the force was still not routinely sharing its intelligence assessments. We therefore raised this again with British Transport Police who confirmed that it had put a process in place to improve intelligence sharing.”

Most forces and other participating bodies were found to be providing the NCA with the information it needs to produce national strategic and tactical assessments.

However, BTP was not submitting intelligence at all at the time of the inspection, meaning important information about County Lines offending is not contributing to the national strategy.

HMICFRS believes the force is particularly well equipped to comment on this form of crime as it typically involves city-based drug gangs travelling to rural parts of the country to sell drugs, often using the rail network.

The report also found the PSNI is not routinely sharing intelligence assessments but leaders have shown a commitment to improving its submissions.

Further confusion remains over how ROCUs should refer matters for national investigation despite the issue repeatedly being raised.

Several of the nine ROCUs are not submitting their required intelligence to the NCA’s timetable, meaning the information is unavailable for the assessments.

One ROCU has not submitted any intelligence assessments for more than 12 months and another was unaware that it was required to send in tactical assessments.

ROCUs were also failing to making their submissions through the correct channels, and distinct variances emerged in the quality of their efforts.

HMICFRS identified one that was submitting its assessments through its NCA regional organised crime co-ordinator instead of the correct email address for the national assessment centre.

Several other NCA email addresses were also being used for this purpose, which may have led to some intelligence being missed.

No ROCUs held complete records of what they had sent to the NCA.

The NCA was found to be generally efficient and effective, although some areas for improvement were identified.

HMICFRS found that more needs to be done to enhance the picture of threat that NCA tasking is based on.

Omissions were also found in the submission of intelligence to policing, although HMICFRS noted these would be easy to address.

Further problems emerged in the ability of assessment officers to access sensitive intelligence, but the NCA has plans to address this issue.

HMICFRS recommended that the NCA’s intelligence director should consult other law enforcement organisations on a potential timetable for intelligence submissions.

It also proposed that the structure and working practices of the national assessment centre should be modified to improve assessment of matters that relate to multiple national threats.

An NCA spokesperson said: “We welcome the HMICFRS latest inspection into the NCA’s national tasking, coordination and governance arrangements, and its conclusion that these are generally working well.

“Recommendations arising from HMICFRS inspections help to identify necessary improvements, and working with partners and the inspectorate, we have made substantial progress across all of those set out in the report.

“These form part of the agency’s wider drive to transform the way we operate to deliver the strongest national response to serious and organised crime.”

A BTP spokesperson said: “We know that county lines drug trafficking is a national issue and that BTP has a vital role to play in tackling offences. Since January this year, BTP assessed how the force was sharing intelligence with our partners and made a number of changes following recommendations from the HMICFRS.

“Likewise, since last year, officers from BTP now attend daily tasking meetings with the NCA to ensure that concerns are immediately addressed and intelligence is shared swiftly. By working closely with police forces nationally, including the NCA, we’re working to clamp down on county line offending and make the railway a hostile environment for criminals.”