Commentary on Sections Schedule 5: Police, customs and immigration powers Section 11: Inspections and complaints
216.Subsection (1) provides for inspection of the NCA by Her Majesty's Inspectors of Constabulary (“HMIC”). HMIC are appointed under section 54 of the Police Act 1996 for the purpose of independently inspecting and reporting on the efficiency and effectiveness of police forces in England and Wales.
217.Subsection (2) enables the Secretary of State to request an inspection by HMIC (under subsection (1)) HMIC will conduct inspections of the NCA on its own initiative).
218.Subsection (3) requires HMIC to report the outcome of their inspections of the NCA to the Secretary of State (in practice the Home Secretary).
219.Subsection (4) enables the Secretary of State to direct HMIC to carry out other duties relating to the efficiency and effectiveness of the NCA.
220.Subsection (5) provides that paragraphs 2 and 5 of Schedule 4A to the Police Act 1996 (which enable HMIC to draft inspection programmes and frameworks to be approved by the Secretary of State) applies to inspection functions of HMIC in relation to the NCA.
221.Subsection (6) inserts a new section 26C into the Police Reform Act 2002. New section 26C(1) requires the Secretary of State to make regulations (subject to the negative resolution procedure) conferring functions on the Independent Police Complaints Commission (“IPCC”) in relation to the exercise of functions by the Director General of the NCA and other NCA officers. Under new section 26C(2)(a) such regulations may apply, with or without modifications, the provisions of Part 2 of the Police Reform Act 2002 or of regulations made under it. Part 2 confers functions on the IPCC in respect of complaints about, or matters indicating misconduct or death or serious injury involving, persons serving with police forces in England and Wales; such functions include the examination of police forces’ complaint handling procedures and undertaking, management or supervision of investigations into complaints or other matters. The purpose of these provisions is not simply to replicate Part 2 of the Police Reform Act 2002, because the arrangements will need to be tailored to the circumstances of the NCA, but they will ensure that the IPCC has oversight of the NCA in broadly the same way as it has in relation to the police. Under new section 26C(2)(b), such regulations may make provision for the NCA to make payments to the IPCC in respect of the exercise of its functions under the new section 26C.
222.New section 26C(3) confines the scope of the IPCC’s oversight of the NCA to the exercise of its functions in, or in relation to, England and Wales. New section 26C(4) enables the IPCC and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (“PCA”) jointly to investigate a matter in relation to which both of them have functions (limited to matters in relation to which the NCA exercises certain asset recovery functions). New section 26C(5) enables an NCA officer to disclose information to the IPCC, or a person acting on its behalf, for the purposes of the IPCC exercising a function conferred under new section 26C. New section 26C(6) enables the IPCC and the PCA to disclose information to each other for the purposes of the exercise of any functions under new section 26C(4) or the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967. New section 26C(7) and (8) enable regulations to make further provision about the disclosure of information under new section 26C(5) and (6) or in relation to the onward disclosure of information by the IPCC of information provided to it by the NCA, and disapplies Schedule 7 to the Act (unless provision is made to the contrary).
223.Subsection (7) makes amendments to article 4(4) of the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2007 (“the 2007 Order”) so as to provide that complaints relating to the acts or omissions of NCA officers exercising functions in Scotland are subject to the oversight of the Police Investigations and Review Commission as set out in an agreement between the Commission and the NCA; such an agreement has been made between the Commission and SOCA under article 4(4) of the 2007 Order.
224.Subsection (8) amends section 60ZA of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998 so as to provide that complaints and conduct matters arising from NCA officers exercising functions in Northern Ireland are subject to oversight by the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland as set out in an agreement between the Police Ombudsman and the NCA (which has been made under that section), or as established by order made by the Secretary of State.
225.Subsection (9) gives effect to Schedule 6.