Proposals on NPIA functions imminent as minister criticises ‘Christmas tree quango’

Consultation on which functions of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) will move to the new National Crime Agency (NCA) will be launched before Parliament enters recess in July, the policing minister has announced as he was forced to explain why the agency is to be abolished.

Giving evidence at the Home Affairs Select Committee’s (HASC) inquiry into the new landscape of policing this week, Nick Herbert acknowledged the good work the NPIA has been doing but said it was sat uncomfortably between police forces and the Home Office.

Some of the functions of the NPIA are expected to be merged into the new NCA, details of which Mr Herbert was pressed on by the committee.

He said that the Government will be announcing the broad direction of travel of the NCA before the next Parliamentary recess, in terms of how certain functions of the NPIA will lie within the new agency, followed by a consultation period. The Home Office said it is “getting close to being able to offer greater clarity that will then also deal with the issue about how functions will be funded”.

It is already searching for a chief constable to head the NCA despite not knowing exactly what functions it will have and what its budget will be.

An exact budget has not been allocated to the NCA, although the Policing Minister said the “lions share” will come from the budget available to the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which totalled £476 million last year. The NPIA’s budget was £447.6 million.

“There will be clarity at the appropriate time. What we know at the moment is the budget in relation to SOCA and the amount of money we are going to have to save from the NPIA,” added Mr Herbert.

He said: “I’m sure [abolishing the NPIA] is the right thing to do in the new landscape of policing, given the challenges we are facing, given the different needs that I think policing has today, that we are not going to go on with this quango of the NPIA that is neither fish nor foul, that didn’t really have the buy-in from local forces, didn’t have a strong connection with the Home Office either, and didn’t make in my view, sufficient progress in targets that we need to relating to how we are going to converge IT, how we are going to help drive out cost in IT and indeed, the developments we need in professional training and development in policing.

“I don’t think it would have been right to have this kind of ‘Christmas tree quango’ at the very great cost that we have seen over the last few years, continuing in that role. I think it was right to re-order the landscape. That is not in any way to discount any of the good work the NPIA has been doing recently, which I would certainly like to give them credit for.”

Sir Paul Stephenson, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), who also gave evidence to the committee, has called on the new NCA to be more visible than its predecessor.

He said: “I think the NCA must have a higher public profile so it maintains public support and also, critically, other agency support and the support of police forces. SOCA did many fine things but it would have been better advised if it adopted a higher profile in certain areas.”

He added: “What more needs to be done is coming up with a realistic performance framework so the NCA, other agencies and police forces, know whether they are succeeding or otherwise, against serious organised crime. It has bedevilled us, how do you measure success against the shadow of organised crime? That is a critical piece of work.”

Sir Paul added that the Government needs to make sure investment in regional intelligence teams and regional asset recovery teams is maintained. He said there is currently too little operational capability to deal with serious and organised.

“We need clarity on the strategic policing requirements that police and crime commissioners (PCC) and chief constables are going to need to have to satisfy to ensure that the limited capability that is