Background Part 1: The Serious Organised Crime Agency
35.The White Paper proposed the establishment of a single powerful agency to lead the fight against organised crime – the Serious Organised Crime Agency. SOCA will bring together the National Crime Squad (NCS), the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), the investigative and intelligence work of Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise (HMCE) on serious drug trafficking, and the Immigration Service’s responsibilities for organised immigration crime. SOCA will be an intelligence-led organisation. Its core objective will be to reduce the harm caused by organised crime. To achieve this objective SOCA, working with others, will use a variety of strategies, including the investigation and prosecution of criminals involved in serious organised crime, the disruption of supply networks, the confiscation of criminal assets, the taxation of undeclared earnings and improving the defences of the financial sector and others against attack by organised criminals. In discharging its functions, SOCA will co-operate closely with the police, intelligence agencies, Asset Recovery Agency (ARA), Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) (which under the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 will take over the functions of the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise from April 2005), financial regulators, international partners and many others.
36.SOCA’s remit will extend throughout the United Kingdom, but with special arrangements in place in recognition of the devolution settlement in Scotland and the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland. In carrying out its functions in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Agency will work in partnership with the Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency and the Police Service of Northern Ireland respectively.