UK government sets course against organised crime

Organised crime costs the UK at least £24bn a year according to a government strategy paper published to coincide with the launch of the new National Crime Agency. [1] The NCA, with more than 4,000 officers and a budget of £463m, will be able to task local police forces in England and Wales to work on specific operations but the strategy lays emphasis on collaboration. The nine Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs), which are already receiving investment in areas like intelligence collection and analysis, asset recovery, fraud and cybercrime, will be expected to work alongside, and ideally co-locate with 18 regional NCA offices; similarly for counter-terrorism units. The government would also like to see, as standard, a named officer assigned responsibility for each organised crime group (OCG) in a local police area.