Your NEC has briefed National media following recent press article. In response to both newspaper and BBC questions, the NCOA has responded as below but without prejudicing any ongoing pay talks
Dear .......
Re: Recruitment & Pay Issues National Crime Agency
Thanks for your interest in the issues affecting officers of the National Crime Officers Association (NCOA). As you are no doubt aware the National Crime Agency was launched as a result of the Crime & Courts Act 2013. Officers bring a variety of skills to the agency which has a global reach around the world. NCA deals with combatting some of the UK/world most serious and organised criminals with law enforcement partners from both home and abroad.
The NCOA represents its members who are operating at the highest levels of law enforcement and may be involved in a range of activities including intelligence gathering, investigation, prosecution or disruption of criminals who seek to harm & exploit children to international investigations in areas of kidnap, extortion, drugs and human trafficking. All of the skills that my NCOA members bring to the agency are necessary to ensure the residents of the UK remain safe.
In 2013, the NCA inherited an already flawed pay system which was not fit for purpose and which saw staff increasingly frustrated by lack of progression and falling behind other law enforcement pay scales. The HM Treasury Pay constraints have further exacerbated that position.
The last three years of staff surveys have highlighted the failings in the pay and reward system in place, as a predominant reason for low morale in the agency.
NCOA have campaigned on the issue of their members pay since the Agency inception and in 2016, the NCOA published, via the NCARRB (Pay Review Body), the urgent need for pay reform as the only way in which the agency may sustain its operational capability and maintain its aims to be a world class crime fighting agency.
In the meantime, I would invite you to read our NCARRB submission and letter to the Home Secretary that can be seen by visiting www.ncoa.org.uk/news
Simon Bashford
President