§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the annual budget for the Serious and Organised Crime Agency will be; [166461]
(2) what (a) functions and (b) funds are being transferred from the National Criminal Intelligence Service to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. [166596]
§ Ms BlearsProposals for the Serious Organised Crime Agency were set out in the white paper 'One Step Ahead: A 21st century strategy to defeat organised crime' (Cm6167), published on 29 March. The new Agency will bring together the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), the National Crime Squad (NCS), the investigative and intelligence work of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise (HMCE) on serious drug trafficking and the recovery of related criminal assets, and the Home Office's responsibilities for organised immigration crime The National Criminal Intelligence Service currently works on behalf of all United Kingdom law enforcement agencies, providing strategic and tactical intelligence on serious and organised crime, 1553W nationally and internationally. These functions will be undertaken by the Serious Organised Crime Agency once it is fully operational.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency will be funded by the Home Office as an executive non-departmental public body; provision will be determined through the Spending Review 2004 process.