Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21
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National Crime Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21 HC 483 National Crime Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21 Annual Report presented to Parliament pursuant to paragraph 8(2) of Schedule 2 to the Crime and Courts Act 2013. Accounts presented to the House of Commons pursuant to Section 6(4) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000. Accounts presented to the House of Lords by Command of Her Majesty. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 20 July 2021. HC 483 © Crown copyright 2021 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available at www.gov.uk/official-documents. Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to National Crime Agency, Command Suite, Unit 1, Spring Gardens, Tinworth Street, London, SE11 5EN. ISBN.978-1-5286-2823-5 CCS0121958260 07/21 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum. Printed in the UK by the APS Group on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Part One Performance Report Contents Foreword by the Home Secretary 7 Foreword by the Director General 8 Part One – Performance Report Who We Are and What We Do 11 Context for 2020-21 Performance 13 Financial Summary 15 Operational Priorities 19 National Capabilities 28 Enabling Functions 31 Part Two – Accountability Report Corporate Governance Report 39 Risk Management 44 Remuneration and Staff Report 53 Parliamentary Accountability and Audit Report 64 Statement of Parliamentary Supply 64 Notes to the Statement of Parliamentary Supply 2020-21 66 Remote Contingent Liabilities, Losses and Special Payments 69 Certificate of the Comptroller and Auditor General to the Houses of Parliament 70 Part Three – Financial Statements Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure 75 Statement of Financial Position 76 Statement of Cash Flow 77 Statement of Changes in Taxpayers’ Equity 78 Notes to the Accounts 79 Annex A – Regulatory Reporting 98 Annex B – Sustainability Report 100 National Crime Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21 5 Part One Performance Report Foreword by the Home Secretary Serious and Organised Crime destroys lives, and through Operation Stovewood. The NCA the National Crime Agency is at the heart of the remains at the forefront of national efforts to mission to defend the country against this chronic tackle serious and organised crime, working with threat and bring criminals to justice. It confronts policing, government and industry to protect us some of the gravest crimes in the UK, such as from exploitation and harm. child sexual abuse, modern slavery and human trafficking, organised immigration crime, fraud, and cybercrime. It has a pivotal role in keeping us The UK response to serious and organised safe and its work could not be more important. crime needs to keep pace with technological developments, especially online, so that we can meet our commitment to bring criminals This report details some of the Agency’s major to justice and ensure that their illegal activities successes over the past year. NCA activity has are eliminated. That is why this government led to the seizure of 450 firearms in the UK and is committed to strengthening the NCA and abroad, the arrest of 154 of the most abhorrent build on its reputation as a world-leading law child sex offenders, and the safeguarding of over enforcement agency. I will ensure that the Agency 1,600 children and over 700 potential victims has all the tools it needs. of human trafficking. There has been almost a 40% increase in recorded disruptions, worldwide seizures of 149 tonnes of illicit drugs, and Tackling the threat from organised crime remains over £150 million of criminal assets have been a massive challenge. However, the leadership, frozen or seized. This has been the NCA’s most talent, and commitment which I see every day successful year ever. I am profoundly grateful for from the National Crime Agency and its officers their unrelenting and frequently dangerous work. fills me with confidence. I know that the Agency will never rest on its laurels but instead keep on fighting crime and doing all it can to keep The NCA has adapted commendably to this country safe. Most people will never know a background of a shift in the operational about most of the NCA’s work, but they all landscape with EU-Exit and the severe challenges depend upon it. posed by COVID. It has responded to wide- ranging threats, such as by providing leadership to combat COVID-related fraud through its National Economic Crime Centre. The Agency has also successfully delivered complex investigations such as Operation Rt Hon Priti Patel MP Venetic, which resulted in the arrests of more than 1,500 criminals across the UK, and continued its investigation into historic child sexual abuse National Crime Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21 7 Part One Performance Report Foreword by the Director General Serious and organised crime (SOC) poses a on enhanced encryption strategies to deter chronic threat to our national security; one and defeat cyber criminals, and with education that permeates borders, perpetuates violence, professionals and child protection specialists and undermines sovereignty and economies to deliver awareness-raising packages that worldwide. The National Crime Agency leads the protect our children from those who would prey UK’s fight against this transnational threat. upon them online. Operationally 2020-21 was the most successful Despite these successes, we recognise that year for the NCA to date, with an almost 40% the SOC threat grows ever more complex and increase in disruptions on the previous financial challenging to disrupt. Though the Agency’s year. These disruptions were all instances in officers and I remain determined to protect which our actions reduced the threat, risk or harm the public, our resources are finite. So we will posed by an individual or organised crime group; continue to build capability across the SOC successes that took place before a backdrop of system; enhance our prioritisation methods to complexity driven by the growing adaptability direct the most effective response against those of criminals, their increasing exploitation of who pose the highest harm; and ensure future technology, and the challenges of operating funding models enable us to get ahead of the throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. pace of change amongst criminal groups. The pandemic has offered criminals new avenues This Annual Report shows that, though we still to exploit: in the past year we have responded have more to do, we have never before had such to threats against the National Health Service a strong operational baseline on which to build. and the UK’s vaccine programme; disrupted We will continue to work tirelessly to deliver a attempts to abuse government stimulus schemes; world-class law enforcement agency, protecting and targeted those seeking to undermine our the public from serious and organised crime. borders. But overcoming these threats has also offered us opportunities to adapt, develop and improve. During 2020-21, we accelerated a number of technology enhancements, continued to provide national capabilities across the SOC system, recruited record numbers of people, and adapted to EU exit with both an innovative and determined attitude to ensure our full capabilities Dame Lynne Owens DCB CBE QPM target and disrupt criminals worldwide. We recognise that cutting SOC requires a holistic approach, and our efforts over the past year have included preventing and deterring organised criminality, and protecting those who are vulnerable to criminal groups. We continue to work across Government and with industry 8 National Crime Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21 Part One Performance Report National Crime Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21 9 Part One Performance Report Part One Performance Report Who We Are attacks, online fraud, and child sexual abuse, and we have seen criminals continue to exploit The National Crime Agency (NCA) is charged rapid advances in technology to obscure their with leading the UK’s fight to cut serious and methods, communications and identities. Across organised crime (SOC). the UK, the scale and sophistication of the threat has continued to increase, posing unique SOC represents a significant and growing threat challenges to the law enforcement response. to national security. Unlike threats such as The NCA continues to adapt to counter this terrorism, SOC tends not to result in acute shocks shifting threat, embracing stronger collaboration, to the UK system. Its impact, however, is no less employing innovative approaches and deploying real: SOC is chronic and corrosive in nature, and its full range of capabilities to disrupt high- continues to cause significant harm to UK citizens. harm criminality. The smuggling and distribution of drugs and firearms, sexual abuse of children, cross-border The NCA had notable operational successes in trafficking of people, perpetration of industrial- 2020-21. Examples include Operation Heruli, an scale fraud, delivery of ransomware attacks and investigation into an online predator who laundering of dirty money in and through the targeted more than 5,000 boys worldwide, UK continue to negatively affect our citizens and blackmailing victims into abusing younger siblings communities, while undermining our economy and friends. Jailed for 28 years, he is one of the and national reputation. most prolific child sexual abuse offenders the NCA has ever investigated. Another example is The NCA leads the UK’s response to these Operation Venetic, which has resulted in the crimes. The Agency works with law enforcement arrests of more than 1,550 people across the UK partners and across all sectors to deliver a to date, following international partners’ whole-system response to SOC in over 40 extraction of data from the encrypted countries, with a reach into over 130 worldwide.