A union representing National Crime Agency staff has warned that more investment and recruitment is needed or the agency will have to deprioritise some work.
The National Crime Officers Association’s concerns come as security minister Dan Jarvis this week confirmed that the NCA has had to slow down its recruitment activity due to this year’s pay award being above the amount the government budgeted for.
In a letter kicking off the National Crime Agency Remuneration and Review Body’s remit for the 2025-26 pay award, Jarvis noted that the government was “pleased to be able to accept” the NCARR’s recommendations for 2025/26, but “since they came in above the figures we set out as affordable within evidence, they required trade-offs, including a slowdown in NCA’s planned recruitment activity”.
Jarvis added: “As the Spending Review confirmed, all pay must be funded from departmental budgets and there will be no additional funding available for pay settlements."
Ministers had set a pay guidance of 2.9%, but ended up approving the NCARRB’s recommendation for a pay uplift of 4.4%. In its recommendation, the pay review body outlined the importance of "providing a sufficiently attractive offer to recruit and retain permanent staff" and warned that "morale and motivation can be damaged by a failure to take adequate action on pay".
It also noted that the NCA was "adamant that any reprioritisation to fund an award above 2.9% will impact government priorities", while the Home Office "told us that it felt it would be possible for the NCA to identify efficiencies that would not affect operational delivery".
In her letter approving the pay award, then-home secretary Yvette Cooper said she had "given due consideration to several factors, including the impact of inflation on officer pay, the measures that the NCA will take to boost efficiency and productivity, therefore ensuring the award is affordable from within its existing budget, and the need to deliver value for money for the taxpaying public".
Speaking to CSW about the impact of the higher award coming without extra funding, Steve Bond, general secretary at NCOA, said the NCOA had recently run a member work and wellbeing survey which found that most members have seen their workloads increase significantly, and are having to catch up on outstanding work in their free time.
He said the NCA has accepted the findings of the survey and is “working with the NCOA to resolve issues” but “it seems inevitable that without more investment and recruitment across all areas, the NCA will need to deprioritise some work”.
Bond said attrition from the NCA is currently low, but a recent business planning process "has seen some NCA commands shrink”.
Bond said NCA recruitment is now largely focussed on tackling organised immigration crime, in line with the home secretary’s priorities. Last year, the NCA received funding for hundreds of extra officers focused on gathering intelligence to help stop small boat smugglers.
However, Bond said funding to tackle this type of crime “seems disjointed and unconnected without clear direction on how the Border Security Command will operate”. Bond said he understands that the NCA is seeking additional funding aligned to the Border Security Command to tackle organised immigration crime.
He added that the 2.9% recommendation “was always going to be unrealistic with inflation clearly increasing”, and that it was “no surprise” that the NCARRB recommended a pay uplift of 4.4%.
A year ago, anti-corruption charity Spotlight on Corruption warned that the National Crime Agency was “on its knees” due to recruitment, retention, progression and pay issues.
It said almost one in 10 of the agency’s roles were unfilled – compared to the one-in-25 average across the public sector – and the organisation was suffering from “major brain drain”.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We’re fully committed to supporting the NCA’s vital work, which is playing a vital role in smashing organised crime, such as people and drug smuggling.
“Recruitment remains focused on priority areas, and we continue to work closely with the agency to manage resources effectively.”
An NCA spokesperson said: “Like all public sector bodies we operate within a budgetary framework. We continue to recruit to roles identified as highest priority and we engage with government to ensure the NCA has the people and resources to best protect the UK public into the future.”