Commentary on Sections Schedule 1: The NCA & NCA Officers Section 4: Operations
116.This section enshrines the operational independence of the Director General and determines how this relates to the strategic direction set by the Home Secretary. The Home Secretary will set the strategic priorities of the NCA, and will issue a framework document for the NCA (see further below). As part of the annual plan, the Director General will explain how he or she intends that the strategic and operational priorities will be given effect to. It will be for the Director General to determine which operations to mount and how they will be conducted (subsection (1)). The Director General must have regard to the strategic priorities, annual plan and framework document in exercising his or her functions (subsection (2)).
117.Subsections (3) to (9) make provision in respect of the annual plan. They provide that at the beginning of each financial year, the Director General must publish an annual plan setting out how the Director General intends that NCA functions are to be exercised for that year. The plan must include any strategic and operational priorities (operational priorities must be consistent with the current strategic priorities), and explain how the Director General intends to deliver against both sets of priorities (subsection (4)). In developing the annual plan, the Director General must consult the “strategic partners” (defined in section 16(1)) and anyone else he or she considers appropriate (subsection (6)). The duty to consult and approve the plan with Scottish Ministers and the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland, as two of the strategic partners, only applies in so far as the plan relates to activities in Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively (subsections (7) and (8)). The Home Secretary must approve the annual plan before it is issued by the Director General (subsection (8)).
118.Subsection (10) gives effect to Schedule 2.