Research and analysis

Evidence to the NCA Remuneration Review Body (NCARRB), 2023 to 2024 (accessible)

Updated 15 November 2023

Executive Summary

The National Crime Agency (NCA) is an intelligence led law enforcement organisation which exists to protect the UK against Serious and Organised Crime (SOC). SOC poses a strategic risk to the UK, damaging our resilience and our economy as well as blighting communities and the lives of individual citizens.

SOC threats almost all have a significant overseas dimension, are enabled by technology and for growing threats such as cyber and fraud, increasingly take place online. SOC actors are highly capable adversaries, especially given the increasing role of States in SOC threats.

The NCA occupies a unique place among a set of overlapping communities. It is part of the National Security Community with UKIC and Defence. It is part of the law enforcement community with wider policing, H.M. Revenue and Customs and other executive agencies. And it is part of the Government strategic community, sitting within the Home Office family and constitutionally part of the Civil Service.

NCA’s workforce is critical to its success. To be successful tomorrow as well as today the NCA is:

• Undergoing a digital transformation to ensure we can harness the benefits of science and technology to collect and exploit the range of sensitive targeted, privileged and open source data. This will include increasingly sharing platforms and capability with UKIC partners and delivering a national strategy for providing capability or services to wider law enforcement;

• Delivering an estates enabled transformation – moving our headquarters in London to a new more modern site that will support different, smarter ways of working, expanding our North West hub and investing beyond this Spending Review (SR) in our other hubs across the UK; and

• Refreshing the operating model with an emphasis on professionalising and growing critical skills and capabilities, putting technologists, analysts, cyber and financial investigators closer to the front line and democratising those capabilities and skills across all our staff.

There are no unique skills in our workforce: the police have investigators; several operational agencies have technical operations and human intelligence officers; an increasing number of organisations want financial, cyber and data analysts; child protection officers work in local authorities; and lawyers, commercial officers and HR specialists exist in most organisations.

However, what makes the NCA unique is the sheer breadth and diversity of skills from across the three primary market sectors (Civil Service, Police and Private Sector) that enable the organisation to deliver its end to end mission and system role. And of course our people put their skills into practice with tradecraft honed by their diverse experience and with a deep seated passion for the mission.

The biggest risk to the NCA and its mission is our ability to attract, retain and develop our highly skilled workforce. The Government is investing in tackling the SOC threat and we have a clear and inspiring strategy to protect the public by combating SOC upstream, overseas and online. But, for the third consecutive year the workforce is unlikely to grow as recruitment is being matched by attrition. And, despite their passion for the mission, our workforce tell us through the People Survey and in every face to face forum that they are increasingly demoralised and preoccupied by the pressures caused by the higher cost of living, and by structural constraints in our pay and reward structures that means their skills can be more highly compensated elsewhere.

NCA takes considerably longer than most organisations to recruit staff because of the need for vetting. Vetting acts as a throttle on who we can recruit. Simply attracting the right skills is not enough. We must attract staff who have the right skills and can pass the highest vetting standards in the UK. Our people are less likely than in most organisations to be able to work from home. We allow hybrid working where roles can accommodate it but large portions of our workforce are tethered to the estate and we expect that proportion is likely to grow rather than fall given the nature of the threat and the classification at which we will need to work.

NCA was formed with pay arrangements that now need to be refined to underpin our workforce strategy and our future success. We have until this year had two pay mechanisms – one recommended by the NCA Remuneration Review Body (NCARRB) for officers with powers and the remaining workforce covered by the Civil Service pay remit. Last year we secured one pay envelope. We are delighted that this year we have been able to make the case that NCARRB should consider our whole workforce in its recommendations. While roles within the NCA are distinct, our workforce strategy depends upon us offering careers and development across the organisation.

There are two matters we are seeking to address in this case:

• Paying our officers a basic consolidated uplift that will offset some of the cost of living pressures that they are facing. Uncertainty in relation to the eligibility of the NCA workforce to receive the £1500 non-consolidated cost of living payment awarded to civil servants has become a totemic issue for our workforce and our largest trade union, the NCOA, have successfully balloted for withdrawal of goodwill on the basis of the delayed pay award.

• Fifty nine percent (59%) of our officers on the standard pay range are at or near the minima of the pay scale with no opportunity for progression. Where we can we will pay a higher rate within the pay band at recruitment to ensure we can recruit the skills we need. However, this does not help with our existing workforce and we are conscious we are potentially growing an equal pay risk. We will undertake a feasibility review to consider a competence based pay framework from 2024/25 in a similar manner to the Civil Service Fast Stream and police. In the interim it is expected that a modest uplift in spot rated roles will be required to ensure we can retain skills that are critical to the NCA, and to mitigate equal pay risks. The number of roles will be agreed with HM Treasury, for implementation from August 2024.

Chapter 1

1. NCA Context

1.1. The NCA’s role in tackling Serious and Organised Crime

1.1.1. Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) is a threat to the UK’s National security; to its economic prosperity; and to the safety of its citizens. It is a wide-ranging threat, impacting communities, public services, businesses and infrastructure. SOC is estimated to cost the UK economy tens of billions of pounds annually and kills more people each year than terrorism.

1.1.2. In recent years, the Agency’s success in shifting its operational response to the ‘high end of high harm’ has generated new insights into the nature and scale of SOC. The National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime 2023 sets out four key themes in how the threat is changing:

• Opportunity: The cost of living increase is already being exploited by criminals and this will continue through 2023. It is highly likely that the longer the cost of living remains high, the more members of the public will experience economic pressures that put them at risk of SOC activity as customers, victims and criminal participants.

• Adaptability: Organised crime groups have continued to demonstrate their adaptability in response to EU Exit and the pandemic, and have been equally adaptive in their response to successful law enforcement operations.

• Technology: Technology is widely used by criminals and organised crime groups to their advantage to conceal their identity, hide their activity from law enforcement, identity victims, discuss offending strategies, commit offences and cause harm. The permissive online environment, on both the open and dark web, and easy availability of technology enables offenders to rapidly develop the capability to cause harm at scale.

• International: Vulnerabilities at the UK border mean that it continues to be a key transit point for illegal commodities, such as drugs and firearms, and illegal migrants entering the UK. The use of advanced concealments, tracking technologies, and corrupt insiders indicate the sophistication of the criminal groups involved. In particular, despite the ongoing seizure of large quantities of cocaine and heroin, the wholesale price of both drugs declined in 2022, indicating abundant supply and stable demand across the UK.

1.1.3. The Agency delivers two core functions: a ‘crime-reduction function’ and a ‘criminal intelligence function’ as set out in the Crime Courts Act 2013. Within these statutory requirements, the Agency has several key responsibilities:

• Holding the single, most up-to-date intelligence picture of the SOC threat facing the UK; and collecting and exploiting data and intelligence (including overseas) to detect and disrupt SOC;

• Investigating and taking action (criminal justice or otherwise) against the highest-harm offenders and their enablers, including through civil recovery and tax proceedings;

• Hosting and providing partners with access to national and specialist capabilities, and providing specialist support to serious and major crime investigations;

• Setting operational priorities for the SOC system (including roles and responsibilities for a cross-system threat response), providing a prioritised view of demand on it, and measuring and assessing Agency and national system performance against those priorities.

1.1.4. Within these statutory requirements, the Agency has several key responsibilities, the combination of which make the Agency unique in its breadth, scope and reach:

• It runs investigations through their entire lifecycle, from proactive subject identification to intelligence development, and ultimately, to arrest or alternative disruption;

• It sits alongside policing and the UK intelligence community (UKIC) in the national security landscape. Like the intelligence community, it houses intelligence capabilities and builds proactive intelligence packages against the highest-harm offenders internationally and in the UK. Like policing, it undertakes an operational response to criminality, arresting criminals.

1.1.5. Following the appointment of a permanent Director General in August 2022, the Agency has now set its strategy for 2023-28. The strategy describes how the Agency will meet the Home Secretary’s priorities to protect the public from SOC and how it will equip itself with the tools, capability and workforce that is required. It will be implemented through four priorities:

• Degrade the most harmful organised crime groups;

• Lead the UK’s operational response;

• Transform the Agency’s capabilities;

• Build a highly skilled workforce.

1.1.6. Under the Agency’s priority to degrade the most harmful Organised Crime Groups (OCGs), the Agency will shift its operational activity upstream, overseas, and online. This will mean undertaking more complex investigations against the most harmful and technologically sophisticated offenders as the Agency targets those at the top of the criminal chain, the professional services, and technologies that enable them. In particular, the Agency will:

• Undertake more investigations against economic crime, including fraud and money-laundering, and Agency investigations in general will seek to identify and then seize, freeze or remove more criminal assets and profits;

• Focus more of its investigations against the technology and online enablers, whether criminally dedicated secure communications platforms, commercially available privacy-enhancing technology, or online methodologies such as online fraud, child sexual abuse, or 3D printed firearms, for example;

• Strengthen the specialist and niche capabilities and services it provides to the law enforcement and wider serious and organised crime system. It will also strengthen national law enforcement prioritisation across the threat, using the Agency’s assessment of the threat to drive action nationally, and maximise the impact of law enforcements collective response.

1.1.7. Over the next five years, the Agency’s shift upstream, overseas, and online will build on its operational success over the previous two years to push the Agency into a highly specialised and distinct space, in which its capabilities and reach will have the greatest impact in terms of protecting the public, while delivering the greatest benefit for the system.

1.1.8. As a result, the Agency will be better positioned to bring to bear a unique contribution in pursuit of existing Government priorities (such as the Beating Crime Plan, the 10-year UK drugs plan ‘From Harm to Hope’, the Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy, the National Cyber Strategy, and the 2025 UK Border Strategy), forthcoming strategies (such as the Serious and Organised Crime Strategy, Economic Crime Plan 2, and Fraud Strategy), and respond to new priorities as they emerge.

1.1.9. In particular, the Integrated Review refresh reflects the importance of tackling transnational crime upstream, overseas and online. It presents a challenge for departments being asked, outside a Spending Review period, to respond to greater need for prioritisation with the same resources and funding.

1.1.10. The Agency’s need to secure specialist, niche and complex skills and experience is integral to its success in protecting the public from SOC. These skills are in significant demand across law enforcement and the private sector. It is important that the Agency’s pay proposals reflect the strategic context within which the Agency operates.

1.1.11. The operational case studies below highlight the breadth, complexity and specialist nature of Agency operations against the threat, and required

officers to deploy a range of specialist skills, tactics and knowledge across multiple jurisdictions and with multiple partners.

Figure 1: Case Study 1

Case Study 1: Ringleader sentenced to nine years

Abdullah Alfalsi was sentenced to nine years imprisonment in 2022 for his role as the ringleader of an international controller network responsible for smuggling over £100 million in criminal cash from the UK to Dubai for Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) involved in drug trafficking. He recruited dozens of criminal couriers to travel from the UK to Dubai with suitcases full of criminal cash, taking advantage of the existence of different regulatory regimes to place illicit finance into the legitimate economy.

Figure 2: Case Study 2

Case Study 2: Joint international operation leads to 39 arrests

In 2022, the Agency led a joint investigation with Belgian, Dutch and German partners into an OCG that had industrialised the supply of inflatable vessels, outboard engines and other equipment needed to carry out small boat crossings to the UK. After a leading figure in the OCG was arrested in the UK, the group’s business model was exposed. Specifically, the group was found to be sourcing boats in Turkey and directing their delivery to a range of locations in Western Europe, from which the OCG would transport them to France. The Agency led coordinated action with European partners across Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands, resulting in the arrest of 39 OCG members and the seizure of 135 boats, 1,259 lifejackets and 45 outboard engines. This was the largest international operation targeting criminal networks supplying small boats to date.

1.2. Background to the NCA

1.2.1. The National Crime Agency (NCA) was formed in October 2013, bringing together a number of bodies: the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA); the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP); the Police Central E-Crime Unit; the Crime and Financial Investigation capability from UK Borders Agency and a small group from the National Fraud Authority (who joined 1 December 2013).

1.2.2. The dominant precursor for NCA was SOCA whose operational capacity consisted primarily of former police officers. SOCA’s delegated grading structure grades 1-6 was adopted to minimise disturbance during and after the transition phase to the NCA. In broad terms, the NCA grade 6 is a support/trainee officer level; grade 5s are fully qualified officers; grades 4 and 3 are middle managers and grades 2 and 1 are senior managers.

Grades are determined by a bespoke job evaluation scheme brought over from SOCA under the transition programme. The current NCA grading structure has an equivalency mapping to the standard Civil Service grading structure – although the NCA does not utilise AA grades.

Chapter 2

2. The NCA’s Approach to Pay

2.1. Powered and non-powered officers

2.1.1. Since its creation in 2013, the NCA has had a dual pay determination process, with pay for powered officers covered by NCARRB, and the non- powered officers covered by the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance. In 2022, of the NCA’s total workforce of 5519 officers, 38% were designated with operational powers, although a large number of our operational staff are not required to hold powers. In our operational commands^{[footnote 1]} the split is 46% powered / 54% non-powered officers^{[footnote 2]}.

2.1.2. Section 14 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 (The National Crime Agency (Remuneration Review Body) Regulations 2013 (legislation.gov.uk)) provides for the Home Secretary to make arrangements for determining NCA pay and related matters. NCARRB was established under this section to provide independent advice to the Home Secretary on pay matters for powered officers.

2.1.3. Although the 2013 Crime and Courts Act expressly states that “NCA functions are exercisable on behalf of the Crown” [Schedule 1, Part 1], there is no provision that excludes non-powered officers from undertaking operational work. The NCA has therefore established a workforce strategy that supports officers to develop their careers by moving between operational and enabling functions, adding value to the quality of roles officers can undertake and improving the efficiency and flexibility of the Agency. This model enables the deployment of officers at short notice to cover priority work areas where there are surges in demand or skills shortages. The roles undertaken by non-powered officers are critical to the operational effectiveness of the NCA.

2.1.4. Almost every Command has powered and non-powered officers in which work and functions are shared and there are several reasons for this. Sometimes powered officers in operational roles wish to broaden their careers by working in specialist or enabling functions and they may return to operational roles after securing their new skillsets.

2.1.5. In other circumstances there are many non-powered officers who work in enabling or specialist functions and gain powers when they are successfully selected for operational roles. In other cases a particular unit or team within NCA, for example the Learning & Development Team in HR Command, will purposefully recruit powered officers as the operational experience they bring is critical for the work in this section. In DDaT Command, powered officers provide up to date knowledge of user requirements for IT projects. In some cases, having powers is not a pre- requisite for a role, but an officer may have powers due to their route to post – either from policing or an NCA precursor department such as SOCA.

2.1.6. The NCA wants and requires powered and non-powered officers to work together in unified teams and to be treated fairly.

2.1.7. Many of the NCA’s critical functions such as assessing threats are not directly operational but are still vitally important for disrupting organised crime. There are also many examples of ex-police officers joining the NCA and developing tri-powers (powers of police constable, immigration and customs officer) and then subsequently utilising their experience to successfully work in intelligence or threat leadership functions, although such roles do not require the power to make arrests.

2.1.8. In operational situations, an investigations team will require the power of arrest but will be supported by a number of non-powered officers who are deployed to the field alongside their powered colleagues, for example digital forensics officers and child protection advisors. These officers undertake equivalent risk of harm and disruption of daily life tasks due to deployment obligations at times and locations in the field.

2.1.9. NCA teams have a blend of officers working side by side drawn from the Civil Service, police, intelligence community and private sector. The pay levels these different employees have on securing a role in the NCA will vary significantly due to differences in pay in the respective markets, which has created an imbalance within the Agency.

2.1.10. Attrition is three times higher in non-powered roles (12%) than for powered officers (4%) with turnover particularly high in enabling functions; see Annex A, Table 53. It would be detrimental to exacerbate the perceived unfairness of differences in pay caused by route to post by applying a further pay distinction and paying powered officers more than non-powered officers. Furthermore, pay is one of the main reasons for officers leaving the Agency, other factors include career development, promotion and alternative working conditions. This is based on information gathered by our exit interviews, which is set out in Annex A, 7). Turnover is not uniformly distributed across NCA – turnover in some teams within enabling functions is upwards of 20% and the Agency as a whole has 10% of posts unfilled due to difficulties attracting and retaining the skilled workforce it needs to conduct its operations. The Agency relies on contingent labour to backfill vacancies where we struggle to recruit, particularly within Enabling Capabilities, Commercial and Investigations. This resource is used to bolster and support key work priorities.

2.1.11. NCA is keen to explore the implications and opportunities that a change of status of its employees as “Crown” rather than “Civil” servants might have. This work will be conducted during 2023 and NCA will include its findings in its 2024/25 evidence to NCARRB.

2.2. Introduction of Spot Rate Roles

2.2.1. The NCA’s underlying reward strategy does not seek to replicate police pay and grading across the entire workforce but it must enable us to match pay for those doing comparable roles. It is recognised that critical differences exist between the police and the NCA by virtue of NCA officers’ civil servant status. Police officers are also covered by police regulations whereas NCA officers are employed with Civil Service terms and conditions, although all NCA officers are subject of IOPC oversight and NCA regulations.

2.2.2. Our pay strategy needs to support retention of our most specialist and talented officers and minimise the risk of NCA officers leaving to join the police. The NCA therefore also requires a viable mechanism to counter the attractiveness of police pay arrangements where police officers below the maximum receive progression each year in addition to the headline pay awards recommended by the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB).

2.2.3. The NCA standard pay ranges were adopted from SOCA. These were introduced in 2006 and the minimums and maximums were based on market rates and adjusted to recognise flexibility and mobility. They recognise work as being of equal value and that all officers make an equal contribution to the Agency. At the time, the pay ranges aligned to HMCE (now HMRC), police ranks, police staff, UK Immigration Service (now Border Force) and the National Criminal Intelligence Service (SOCA pre- cursor).

2.2.4. The underlying assumption in 2006 was that officers would reach their pay scale maximum, or target rate, after 10 years of satisfactory and effective service. For officers assimilating from pre-cursor agencies, the notional position on their existing pay scale was applied. For example, if an officer had served eight years in grade, they would be considered to have reached a point 80% from the minimum of the grade. There is no progression in the standard NCA pay framework and nor was there in SOCA.

2.2.5. Police pay retains progression within its pay ranges. Between April 2014 and 2016, three pay points were removed from the constables’ pay scale. New constables since April 2013 are on a revised 7 point pay scale and reach the top point in seven years rather than ten. This difference in approach means the NCA pay scales are now misaligned to the police comparators with which they were originally set up to maintain pace.

2.2.6. The NCA pays London Weighting for officers working at London locations. This payment is pensionable and set at £3,595 pa. In contrast the Metropolitan Police Service pays both non-pensionable and pensionable London Allowances totalling in excess of £7,000 pa. The Metropolitan Police Service also introduced a £1,000 additional London weighting payment for all officers which had been agreed as part of the 2020 pay award and now takes their London Allowances to over £8,000pa. Additionally the TfL services are free for all MPS/BTP/COLP officers, with subsidised travel for other rail services.

2.2.7. Year on year, the NCA has fallen further behind police pay, with the pay gap widening between its own officers and Police since 2014 due to policing retaining progression pay. As shown in Annex A Table 78, the median pay difference at all grades has increased, even with significant investment in NCA Grades 4 and 5 which saw a small reduction during the period of 2017-20; due to police pay progression this gap has again increased with NCA G5 officers now £8,358 behind their constable equivalents.

2.2.8. Prior to 2018, it became clear that the NCA’s pay arrangements were not sufficient to attract or retain serving police officers. The evidence in NCA’s 2018 pay flexibility case, accepted by Ministers, set out difficulties in attracting and retaining capable resource from police forces.

2.2.9. For this reason spot rate roles were introduced in 2018 for roles most critical to the delivery of the SOC mission, for example, analysts, firearms, cyber and financial investigators.

2.2.10. Initially the spot rated roles were located in Intelligence and Investigations for grades 4 and 5. Officers in these business areas undertaking eligible roles can opt to move off standard pay arrangements onto spot rate contracts. Allocation of each officer’s spot rate is determined by assessing the officer against the relevant skills matrix. Officers can move through the spot rate levels from developing to proficient, within grade, by evidencing the required operational and occupational competencies as set out in the skills matrix.

2.2.11. To help support recruitment from the police, the spot rates were set at a higher rate than the NCA minima for each grade but were still significantly below police median pay or police maxima for each grade. In an effort to support retention, the Agency also recognised that it would have to offer some form of skills based progression for operational roles.

2.2.12. As well as receiving a salary uplift, officers opting to take up spot rate were also required to move to a 40 hour working week. To date, 2044 grade 4 and 5 officers have elected to move to the new Spot Rate framework. For officers, moving from a 37 to a 40 hour week provides more certainty of working time and earnings, reducing the inconsistency of variable overtime from week to week. For grade 4 and 5 officers overtime begins when 40 hours have been worked in the week.

2.2.13. For the Agency, the benefits of moving to a 40 hour week, excluding breaks, means that there is less reliance on discretionary overtime, providing managers with guaranteed working hours to roster. Between August 2021 and August 2022, 397 officers joined the spot rate structure. This provided the Agency with 1191 additional working hours per year and equates to 29.77 additional operational FTE protecting the public. Policing work a standard 36.25 hour week, excluding breaks.

2.2.14. Around 38% of roles in NCA are now classified as spot rate roles. Sixty percent (60%) of offices with powers in NCA are in spot rated roles. Annex A 1.2 provides the current NCA pay ranges.

2.2.15. Our recommendation to consider a competence based pay framework will need to align with the principles of the Spot Rate Framework.

2.3. The non-consolidated pay pot

2.3.1. In addition to the consolidated pay systems – standard and spot rate – NCA also operates a non-consolidated pot of money to support performance and retention.

2.3.2. The NCA has built up and ring fenced funding worth circa £2.5m (1% of pay bill). From this, £450,000 of the pot is spent each year to pay one off non pensionable awards to individuals who are evaluated through the performance management process as being the highest performers.

2.3.3. The non-consolidated pot is also used in a limited way to target roles which are hard to recruit to or where there are retention risks. £1.5m is allocated for this function each year into Recruitment and Retention Allowances (RRAs).

2.3.4. NCA has a rigorous approach to assessing which roles are eligible for RRAs. A committee evaluates evidence to determine eligibility carefully and care is taken to ensure the process is fair and based on objective evidence.

2.3.5. There are significant challenges faced in these critical roles and a subsection is detailed below, showing the turnover within some roles that currently receive a recruitment and retention allowance (RRA). These teams are dealing with a volume of attrition many times greater than the Agency average of just under 10%.

Table I: Turnover in select roles in receipt of an RRA

Category (RRA Team)	Turnover
Enterprise Design Authority	66.67%
Child Protection	43.75%
Finance	42.86%
Technical Architect	33.33%
Cyber Engineering	28.57%
TRACER	21.43%
Data Lab	20.00%
Commercial	20.00%
Legal	18.52%
Cyber Security	16.67%

2.3.6. In the longer term pay and contract reform will likely decrease the need to target higher pay via these mechanisms.

2.4. The 2022 NCA Pay Settlement

2.4.1. In 2022, the NCA was successful in the request to apply the NCARRB’s recommendations to the whole workforce to avoid the situation of a dual- pay award. A significant amount of resource from the Agency, Home Office and HM Treasury (HMT) was required to achieve this outcome. The granted flexibility was for an additional 0.3% of NCA’s budget and NCA used this flexibility to implement NCARRB’s recommendation of a flat £1,900 pay increase for its whole workforce to avoid legal, workforce engagement and other operational risks. One of the key drivers was to match the pay rise for policing recommended by the PRRB for police officers which was implemented for police officers in September 2022, and for police staff which covered the period 01 April 2022 to 01 September 2023.

2.4.2. The award was implemented in February 2023, six months after the pay award date of August 2022.

Chapter 3

3. Pay Challenges and Comparisons

3.1. Recruitment Needs

3.1.1. The NCA is a complex organisation and the full range of skillsets and specialisms NCA needs to fulfil its mission are widely sought after in a range of market sectors including police, UKIC, Civil Service and the private sector. NCA is therefore required to design and operate pay arrangements that can support both recruitment and retention of a very broad range of skills against a wide range of competitors, each of which price labour differently. Our required skillsets range from investigation roles where we have a direct comparator with policing; intelligence functions which are comparable with the police and UKIC; cyber roles which are comparable with the private sector and child protection advisors who have strong comparators within local government.

3.1.2. Table 3: Workforce by Command in Annex A shows the variety of Command’s in NCA and their relative size of the overall workforce.

3.1.3. The flow of staff between Commands is consistent between enabling capabilities and operational commands; with key operational skills consistently required within our enabling services. On an annual basis we see 8% of officers moving between operational and enabling capabilities commands.

3.1.4. Due to this complexity, NCA needs to attract candidates from a more diverse set of labour markets than other organisations. Across the entire workforce we recruit roughly a third of staff from policing, a third from the private sector and a third from the Civil Service. In Enabling Capabilities we see a much higher proportion (42%) from the Civil Service, and in operational roles, 35% join from policing.

3.1.5. Although the private sector is a large recruitment market, the range of markets, companies and sectors that NCA recruits from is very diverse and varies by grade, command and the nature of roles. There is not a single dominant private sector company or market NCA recruits from but reliance on recruitment of skills only readily available in the private sector is a major feature of NCA, due to the large number of technical and specialist roles.

3.1.6. In general for most roles above grade 4 the price of labour is much higher for the private sector and the police than the Civil Service and consequently it is more difficult for NCA to recruit from this sector. The wider Civil Service is not as exposed to policing or private sector labour markets as NCA. Two thirds of NCA’s recruitment is from private sector and policing. The wider Civil Service has its own internal market and uses this much more prevalently to fill roles. The stringent vetting requirements add significantly to recruitment time in NCA.

3.1.7. NCA also has a large number of technical and specialist roles including forensic scientists, social workers, occupational psychologists, economists and cyber security experts where recruitment can only be from the private sector and police. The proportion of its workforce of this type is higher than many other public sector employers and the skillsets required are rare and niche.

3.1.8. NCA also has a need for enabling capabilities roles such as HR, Finance, DDaT, Legal and Estates where NCA is at considerable risk of losing officers to Civil Service departments which, even though our pay scales are often higher, are able to offer more promotion opportunities than NCA is able to match with roles often graded at a higher grade than the NCA equivalent. This is evidenced by the high vacancy rates for enabling function roles in NCA and the high turnover level, which for many enabling functions is over 20% in NCA.

3.2. Comparisons of pay in the NCA and competitors

3.2.1. Due to the extensive and specialist skills required by the Agency, pay comparators sit across multiple sectors. When analysing NCA pay in comparison to the Civil Service the Agency compares favourably, but in comparison to the police it lags far behind.

Table II: Pay Comparison against Civil Service and Police

Grade	NCA Median	Civil Service Median	Police Median
Grade 1 / G6 / Chief Superintendent	£72,485	£67,267	£91,749
Grade 2 / G7 / Superintendent	£62,890	£55,093	£77,691
Grade 3 / SEO / Chief Inspector	£47,380	£40,923	£60,732
Grade 4 / HEO / Sergeant	£42,109	£33,801	£46,227
Grade 5 / EO / Constable	£36,037	£28,082	£41,130
Grade 6 / AO	£22,950	£23,851	N/A

3.2.2. An investigation of some of the Agency’s key roles highlights the wide gap in salary; Table 77 in Annex A provides further information on police comparators and specialist functions, including DDaT, Social Workers and Cyber skills. The difference in overall remuneration (including allowances) between the Agency and some Civil Service departments for these specialist roles is high, creating further attrition challenges for the Agency.

3.2.3. The NCA requires a blend of home developed and police developed experience. Currently there is a clear gap in the middle of recently trained NCA recruits and end-of-career police officers. NCA recognises the need to fill this gap with more mid-career serving officers from the police. This would reduce the vulnerability of losing in-house developed officers because they may be attracted to policing given the salary disparity.

3.2.4. The most prevalent recruitment need is for more serving Sergeants and Constables (equivalent to grade 4 and 5 in NCA) to reduce the high percentage of officers who are close to retirement (see Annex A Table 12). The Agency also needs to recruit in greater numbers to fill the vacancies in operational roles, where NCA turnover is higher than the level in policing. The NCA’s remit has grown and added significant new responsibilities in recent years, and it needs to attract candidates from a larger market in addition to retired police officers that wish to join NCA.

3.2.5. These difficulties are evidenced by NCA’s turnover for powered operational roles being significantly higher within the NCA than the police and the low number of early and mid-career police officers the NCA has been able to recruit. The more regular movement of officers between policing and the NCA at an earlier stage in their careers would benefit both organisations.

3.2.6. It is clear that the Agency needs to be able to recruit across the full experience/service profile of policing. The Agency cannot function effectively at the high end of high harm if all vacancies are filled by less experienced officers. The exit interview data set out in Annex A, 7 highlights retirement is the second most popular reason for leaving the NCA, comprising nearly a fifth of all leavers.

3.3. Turnover

3.3.1. Turnover within the NCA is higher than faced within policing, with overall turnover in the NCA currently sitting at 9.74% at delegated grades. Police forces are seeing an overall turnover of 5.9%, with the Civil Service at 8.9%.

3.3.2. Comparing the figures by relevant recruitment market, the turnover in both a) operational roles in NCA (at 7.9%) is significantly higher than police turnover (5.9%) and b) in enabling functions (with NCA turnover at 10.47%) compared to 8.9% for the whole Civil Service market. This turnover data demonstrates that there is significant difficulty recruiting from both these markets, with NCA having over 10% of unfilled roles.

Table III: Turnover in NCA by Grade

NCA Grade	Turnover
Grade 1	23.53%
Grade 2	9.34%
Grade 3	9.29%
Grade 4	8.80%
Grade 5	8.58%
Grade 6	17.86%

3.3.3. The NCA is facing significant retention issues within the enabling capabilities commands, with the highest turnover within Change, Legal and DDaT. These are areas with strong Civil Service connections and highlight that our current pay ranges are not sufficient for retaining specialist skills within enabling capabilities and non-powered roles; Table V. And roles in the private sector are able to offer much more attractive packages, particularly in the Legal profession, with 30% of our lawyers leaving for the private sector.

3.3.4. The high turnover rate in the NCA results in a loss of capability as well as a direct cost. Due to the specialist nature of the workforce, the recruitment and vetting processes can take up to 12 months, with the average time to hire being 9-11 months. Combined with the length of time it can take a new starter to develop NCA specific skills, this means from the moment an officer leaves, it can take up to 18 months for their replacement to be recruited and become proficient in role. This is a substantial loss of productivity for a law enforcement organisation.

3.3.5. The requirement for enhanced vetting amplifies the impact of employee turnover in the NCA.

3.3.6. The Agency recruited 534 new officers within 2022/23 with 400 roles being left vacant which is around 6.6% of the Agency. Forty percent (40%) of candidates withdraw due to the long recruitment and vetting processes. The Agency averages 8 applicants per post which is significantly below the industry average of 30 applicants per role.

3.3.7. The total conversion rate (advertising a role and selecting a suitable candidate) is only 60%. The remaining 40% of vacancies are unfilled owing to:

• the absence of any appointable candidate;

• candidates declining the job offer;

• candidates failing pre-employment checks;

• candidates withdrawing during the long vetting process – this has increased over the last two years, driven by the cost of living challenges and people being unwilling to wait for job offers.

3.3.8. These factors are serious and the Agency is working hard to find solutions, although security remains paramount and it is difficult to relax restrictions or vetting processes. However, all these factors are exacerbated by the lower salaries which NCA is offering e.g. in comparison to policing and specialist areas of the Civil Service. Comparison with the police suggests that the best qualified candidates are prepared to tolerate lengthy recruitment arrangements if the pay on offer is higher, with the police generally having six month recruitment timelines. The NCA submits that any improvement in attractiveness to potential candidates could have a disproportionately high impact on conversion rate and lead to additional savings. Under the direction of a dedicated Deputy Director, the NCA has a programme of activity underway to optimise the recruitment process and candidate experience. Measures being taken to reduce the recruitment timeline include the use of assessment centres where interviews, substance testing, some vetting checks and Occupational Health assessments are all undertaken in one day - a reduction of up to 10 weeks on previous processes.

3.3.9. Turnover represents a direct cost to NCA that can be minimised. Each recruitment campaign run by the NCA costs approximately £3,000 plus £300 per post (not including resource for sifting and interviewing), continuous recruitment creates a significant demand of time for teams with vacancies, where they are regularly shortlisting and interviewing to fill vacancies. In addition, there are significant additional costs associated with training and equipping new joiners.

3.3.10. In addition unfilled vacancies lead to disruption of ongoing investigations, delays in key enabling projects or lags in providing intelligence assessments for critical operations.

3.3.11. This results in increased direct costs to NCA such as the necessity to use contingent labour or to outsource services. For example, the Legal Command has carried and continues to carry a number of vacancies for legal advisor roles in the NCA. The Command has employed various measures to address capacity constraints resulting from vacancies, including the utilisation of external commercial law firms (apprentice, trainee and qualified solicitors). In addition to contracting individuals to work in-house at the NCA, the Legal Command has also instructed external legal providers (including the Government Legal Department and commercial law firms) to have conduct of litigation cases on behalf of the NCA and to provide advice on specific projects and matters.

3.3.12. Although an in-house legal department will always instruct external providers to conduct matters on their behalf, for reasons of expertise, capability and capacity, the vacancy rate within the Legal Command has driven the implementation of some contingent labour and external provider solutions which would not have been adopted but for the vacancy rate. The cost of such external resource varies, but in general terms the cost of buying external assistance to cover internal vacancies is at least three times the cost of in-house provision from permanent NCA legal advisors.

3.3.13. Turnover within the NCA and the lengthy recruitment process in the Agency has resulted in a significant number of vacancies in critical roles. The table below highlights the challenge faced within our Change & Strategy, DDaT and Corporate Business Services Commands where the majority of contingent labour costs are – comparative to their command size.

Table IV: Percentage of CL Costs against Command Size and Attrition

Command	Command Size (%)	Percentage of CL costs	Attrition
Change & Strategy	4.79%	8.81%	21.11%
Corporate Business Services	3.35%	34.31%	16.87%
Digital, Data and Technology	4.59%	34.68%	16.61%
Human Resources	3.92%	0.18%	13.95%
Integrated Protective Security	2.98%	0.00%	7.89%
Intelligence	35.66%	3.85%	6.99%
Investigations	30.70%	13.03%	9.62%
Legal	1.04%	0.00%[footnote 3]	7.84%
National Economic Crime Centre	5.36%	0.00%	9.09%
Threat Leadership	7.62%	2.75%	10.32%

3.3.14. The Agency is paying circa £20k more per post annually for contingent labour than if the role was filled by a permanent employee and as much as £40k for some roles.

3.3.15. The NCA non-consolidated pot currently sits at 1% of the overall wage bill. This is less than the Civil Service average of 1.59%, with the highest value being 4.5%.

3.3.16. This means the average RRA payments are less than Civil Service departments, with three payment values of £1,000, £2,000 and £3,000. For example, the average RRA payment made to qualified accountants across the Civil Service is £5,000pa; technical and cyber roles can receive up to £15,000pa. The table below shows the salary comparison between NCA and Civil Service roles within the DDAT, Commercial and Child Protection specialisms.

Table V: Pay comparison between NCA and Civil Service in key specialisms including allowances

Job Title	NCA Grade	NCA Median Pay	Civil Service Market Comparator	Difference (£)
Head of DDAT	Grade 1	£73,179	£90,709	£17,530
DDAT Senior Manager	Grade 2	£60,640	£75,800	£15,160
DDAT Manager	Grade 3	£50,380	£56,297	£5,917
Social Worker[footnote 4]	Grade 5	£33,445	£42,000	£8,555
Head of Procurement	Grade 1	£73,179	£88,061	£14,882
Procurement Senior Manager	Grade 2	£60,640	£74,767	£14,127

3.3.17. All salaries from this table have been sourced from Civil Service HR Report (unpublished),Civil Service Job adverts, the IDR Benchmarking report for the NCA (unpublished), and National Careers Service for Social Worker salary^{[footnote 5]}.

3.3.18. The Agency offers higher starting salaries where it is able to and is heavily reliant on expensive contingent labour to fill the high levels of vacancies in the commands indicated above, with on average 21% of candidates starting above the grade minimum. In addition, 12% of posts are filled by contingent labour which can cost considerable amounts, with the average contingent labour candidate costing an additional £20k more per post per annum in salary payments. In areas of high turnover like the Child Protection team, 40% of the team are contingent labour; given the sensitive and high risk nature of the work the Agency relies on this resource in order to fight child exploitation.

3.3.19. Additionally, by having a restricted level of pay targeting (either through RRA or spot rate) this means that the Agency operates with a high level of critical vacancies. As well as reducing operational efficiency, these vacancies have a financial cost as mitigations the Agency utilises include overtime and contingent labour to cover the shortfall in labour as shown in Annex A 8.3.

3.4. Building Capability

3.4.1. The NCA has been developing its internal development pipeline, focussing on training and development programmes that will enable officers to join at a more junior grade and progress through the Agency. This will mitigate some of the impact caused by retirement and recruitment delays.

3.4.2. Historically the Agency has utilised schemes such as the Initial Operational Training Programme (IOTP) to build a pipeline of talent for our Intelligence and Investigations roles. This has now been superseded by the Officer Development Programme (ODP), which is a new learning pathway for officers to gain accreditation in specific disciplines.

3.4.3. All officers will undertake a generic four month training programme during which time they will learn the fundamentals of operational law enforcement. At the end of the four months officers are assessed and will continue on the appropriate pathway, working in specialist teams, aiming to achieve College of Policing Professionalising Investigations Programme (PIP) accreditation or Intelligence Professionalisation Programme (IPP) certification respectively. This will enable officers to develop the necessary skills and knowledge and a nationally recognised qualification to follow a career path in a number of disciplines depending upon business need, aptitude and personal preference.

3.5. NCA Culture

3.5.1. Building the right culture is key to Agency success. It is essential to secure the trust of our officers and the public. The People Survey comments and the Agency’s Cultural Inquiry highlight many positive aspects of NCA culture, and there are excellent examples of innovation, creativity, brilliant leadership and dedication.

3.5.2. In the past 18 months, the Agency has launched initiatives to improve our culture and ways of working including:

• A refresh of the Agency’s Values to set out how it should feel to be a NCA Officer and embed these in our people practices to drive forward cultural change;

• Launch of the Allyship programme, to equip and encourage officers to actively support and stand up for others, especially those from non- dominant groups. Half of the Agency has already attended one of these workshops;

• Launch of our EMPOWER Programme, a 12 month structured development programme for officers from an ethnic minority background;

• Launch of the NCA’s Management Development Programme (MDP) aimed at all officers with first line management responsibility;

• Responding to the recommendations from the HMICFRS report including a revised Discipline and Misconduct policy;

• Signing up to the ‘HeforShe’ https://www.heforshe.org/en movement, initiated by the UN to tackle Gender Inequality and Misogyny, addressing the gender imbalance in middle management teams; and addressing and removing sexism and misogyny in NCA culture.

3.5.3. Culture is integral to the fourth priority of the Agency’s new Strategy – Growing a Highly Skilled Workforce – along with being able to attract and retain the most talented officers through our reformed pay and benefits.

Chapter 4

4. NCA Pay Proposition for 2023/24

4.1. The case for NCA officers (both powered and non powered) to receive an equivalent headline pay award to the police award for 2023/24

4.1.1. The 2023/24 pay award should be sufficient to offset the higher cost of living challenges and to avoid a damaging industrial relations climate with the risks of equal pay legal challenge, withdrawal of goodwill, potential strikes, employee disengagement and higher turnover. The strong link between employee engagement and productivity and delivery is well established; as is the link between dissatisfaction and perceptions of unfairness in pay with employee disengagement.

4.1.2. Our key ask for this year is that the award NCA receives is equivalent to the headline police award for 2023/24. The 7% award recommended for the police in 2023/24 was also implemented for police staff. Whilst 7% is a substantial award it is necessary to ensure the gap doesn’t widen further between NCA and police pay. This is affordable for NCA as detailed at paragraph 4.1.10.

4.1.3. We do not consider that this would in any way effect or undermine the already agreed and implemented pay settlement for police in 2023/24.

4.1.4. NCA officers and trade unions are considerably dissatisfied with pay levels in the Agency. This is causing increasing risks of industrial action and has already resulted in the withdrawal of goodwill. Over 65% of NCA officers are trade union members. Such disruption is damaging to NCA operations and industrial action and overtime bans will decrease the NCA’s ability to monitor and combat organised crime including people smuggling gangs both in the UK and overseas.

4.1.5. In order to recognise the public service and commitment of the Civil Service, as well as the cost of living challenges faced by employees during the 2022/23 pay year, it was agreed that a £1,500 payment could be made to civil servants in delegated grades.

4.1.6. Following communication of the agreement directly to all civil servants, the NCA confirmed with its employees that it would make this payment in line with the guidance published. However, it was subsequently determined that organisations with Pay Review Bodies would need to include this as part of the 2023/24 pay award process. In the case of the NCA, this payment is to be subject of consideration by NCARRB.

4.1.7. It is critical that NCA officers are motivated, that pay and workforce arrangements are perceived as fair and not subject to legal challenge and that good industrial relations are maintained with trade unions.

4.1.8. NCA is aware that Government Pay Policy means that any non- consolidated payment made would be considered as part of the general pay settlement and its affordability. Therefore NCA is not prioritising an ask for the non-consolidated payment for 2023/24 as we consider it more critical that we secure a consolidated pay award that is identical to the police settlement for 2023/24.

4.1.9. NCA’s 2022 People Survey results showed a considerable drop for pay and benefits satisfaction within the Agency. This is a 12 percentage point drop compared to the previous year and is 6 percentage points lower than the Civil Service average of 28%. The specific question on pay comparison with other organisations is down 11 percentage points compared to last year, which is 2 percentage points below the Civil Service average. These trends continue with overall engagement down from last year, which is now 6 percentage points below the Civil Service average.

4.1.10. It must be noted that the results for 2022 are the joint lowest scores ever for officer satisfaction on pay and benefits for the Agency, equalling the 2014 People Survey response. The Agency has only 20% satisfaction when officers compare themselves to people doing a similar job in other organisations, which is again the joint lowest score with our People Survey results in 2014.

4.1.11. Dissatisfaction with pay is consistently raised by officers in a range of engagement fora. For example the last two blogs written by the Director General and Director General Capabilities covered a wide variety of topics. These included diversity and inclusion, leadership and career development; yet 76% of comments posted by officers related to pay. It is clear that the significant levels of dissatisfaction are impacting morale and engagement. The remaining responses on the blogs related to a broad range of topics, with the next highest volume response by topic being only 1%. This highlights the extent to which pay is the over-riding issue for officers in the Agency.

4.1.12. NCA officers are concerned about the value of the offer the Agency is making in comparison to police. As shown in Annex A Table 78, the median pay difference between Police and NCA at all grades has increased.

4.1.13. In terms of affordability, the NCA can afford a basic pay settlement for all employees equivalent to a 7% headline award. The NCA budgeted for a 5% pay award effective from 1 August 2023. The additional 2% to fund a 7% headline award would cost approximately £2.8m per annum and will be found from efficiencies that do not adversely impact front line operational activity. The Agency would need to take difficult prioritisation decisions if it was to fund a consolidated payment in excess of 7% for this and future years.

4.1.14. In 2022 the NCA pay award was a flat payment of £1900 for all employees (grades 1-6). This was an exception and necessary to protect lower paid workers from very large inflationary pressures last year. To continue paying basic awards as flat settlements rather than as a percentage of salary is not sustainable for NCA and this year the Agency is seeking the annual pay award to be paid as a percentage of salary for all employees.

4.1.15. The NCA operates arrangements that provide higher pay for London and the South East. The location allowance for roles based in London is £3,595 and for Stevenage/Chelmsford (South East allowance) the location allowance is £2,876.

4.1.16. These location allowances are valuable to recruit and retain in these locations although they are significantly smaller than location allowances in comparable employers e.g. the police payment in London is £6,338. In 2023 the MPS have also introduced a new locational supplement of £1000 in addition to their current London allowance. MPS also funds TfL travel for its officers and subsidies rail travel outside of TfL.

4.1.17. RECOMMENDATION 1: NCA officers (both powered and non powered) to receive 7%, an equivalent headline pay award to the police award for 2023/24. This would represent a consolidated pay award and uplift in location allowances totaling 7% to retain some linkage with the rise in police pay, to address demotivation of our workforce, prevent a widening of NCA gender and ethnicity pay gaps and help protect the lowest paid of our staff in this acute cost of living context.

4.2. The case for a Competence Based Pay Framework Feasibility Review and expansion of spot rate roles from August 2024

4.2.1. Drivers for a Feasibility Review of Competence Based Pay

4.2.2. The NCA standard pay ranges are very long. NCA does not have the flexibility to alter employees’ pay and reposition them within the standard pay ranges as they grow in competence and value. The length of these pay ranges mean our officers will have no opportunity to progress to the top, with the difference at grade 1 being the highest at £15,609 and grade 5 having the largest overall percentage pay range length at 29%. The long pay ranges also create overlaps between grades, where the most highly paid officers may earn more than their line managers.

Table VI: Standard Pay Range - Pay Range Length

Grade	Pay Range Length (£)	Pay Range Length (%)
Grade 1	£15,609	22%
Grade 2	£12,763	22%
Grade 3	£10,624	22%
Grade 4	£8,170	21%
Grade 5	£8,908	29%
Grade 6	£5,954	26%

4.2.3. The distribution of employees within NCA standard pay ranges reflects these difficulties. A minority of employees in each grade are clustered at the top of pay ranges because they joined NCA from the private sector or police with higher salaries which they have retained. However the majority (59%) of employees on the standard pay range are clustered on or near the pay range minima as shown in the below table.

Table VII: Percentage of officers in standard pay range by quartiles

Pay Position	Percentage of officers
Grade Minimum	59.36%
1st Quartile	8.81%
2nd Quartile	10.20%
3rd Quartile	12.64%
4th Quartile	5.90%
Grade Maximum	3.09%

4.2.4. As with much of the Civil Service, on the standard pay range NCA does not have a mechanism to increase an officer’s salary as they grow in competence in role, demonstrate successes and become more marketable. This is particularly demotivating for officers who cannot increase their pay despite their value increasing.

4.2.5. The pay disparity is amplified within the NCA as there is a sizeable body of police, private sector hires and people from the intelligence community who are paid significantly more, working alongside our internal labour force.

4.2.6. In terms of equality effect, a larger proportion of recruits at the top of our pay ranges are older white male officers and a large proportion near the minima have a different gender, age and ethnicity profile (more female, younger and ethnically diverse). The lack of a competence based pay model is a significant cause of the widening gender pay gap within the NCA (12.15% for the mean and 12.65% for the median).

Table VIII: Percentage of officers in standard pay range quartiles by grade

NCA
Grade	Grade Minimum	1st Quartile	2nd Quartile	3rd Quartile	4th Quartile	Grade Maximum
Grade 1	55.81%	16.28%	9.30%	11.63%	6.98%	0.00%
Grade 2	79.87%	4.70%	6.04%	6.71%	1.34%	1.34%
Grade 3	69.90%	12.01%	10.56%	5.93%	0.72%	0.87%
Grade 4	53.92%	9.17%	12.60%	11.82%	5.52%	6.96%
Grade 5	55.07%	8.63%	10.40%	16.21%	8.37%	1.32%
Grade 6	58.15%	2.24%	3.83%	19.81%	11.50%	4.47%
Grand Total	59.36%	8.81%	10.20%	12.64%	5.90%	3.09%

4.2.7. Spot Rate Expansion

4.2.8. Spot rates will need to be retained in the near term, as they support retention in critical operational roles, as shown by the much lower turnover of spot rated roles than non-spot rated roles. NCA’s long term pay strategy needs to support higher retention in enabling functions where turnover is much higher (turnover in standard pay roles is 11%) and acute (over 20%) for many critical enabling functions.

4.2.9. The operation of two pay systems is not without difficulties for the NCA. The differences in pay and terms and conditions are a barrier to porosity with individuals declining to apply for non-spot rated roles, even if this would have long term career advantage or their skills would be suitable. Additionally, some officers will not apply to spot rated roles as they do not want to work the extra hours or when the money they would lose from lack of overtime is greater than the increase in pay for moving to a spot rate (most evident at grade 3).

4.2.10. There is also considerable discontent with operating two systems. Attrition is much higher in roles on the standard pay framework, and officers in these roles challenge the rationale for higher pay for spot rated roles.

4.2.11. The NCA’s enabling and specialist functions are rated by job weight as equivalent to spot rated roles and these supporting functions are equally critical for the Agency’s success; so it is difficult to justify the lack of progression for non-spot rated roles when progression is available for those in spot rate roles.

4.2.12. NCA has an established methodology to determine what the priority roles are for moving to spot rate. There is considerable demand for roles to be included within the spot rate framework. There are roles which could align with current skills matrices sitting within commands such as Threat Leadership and NECC Command which would be considered, alongside roles within Investigations and Intelligence. Subsequently, additional roles should be considered subject to the development of the appropriate skills matrices.

4.2.13. It is important, to support critical recruitments and retention for the number of roles that are classified as spot rate in NCA to be expanded from August 2024. In the longer term, if NCA can secure wider pay and contract reforms such as developing and implementing a competence based pay framework; these new features of NCA pay will perform the function spot rates are currently filling in terms of supporting recruitment and retention. At this point the spot rate expansion can be frozen and reduced or abolished at the appropriate time.

4.2.14. For the reasons indicated above, the NCA will look as part of its long term reform plans for opportunities to critically evaluate the long term impacts of the spot rate framework with evaluation of alternative means of providing premia to critical roles. In the near term spot rates are necessary to address acute retention and recruitment challenges in operational commands. The NCA believes there is a need to temporarily increase the number of spot rated roles, even though these may be replaced in future years by a competence based pay model. Costs for this expansion will be assessed for the 2024/25 pay round.

4.2.15. The original pay reform proposals submitted to HM Treasury in 2017 for spot rate demonstrated how they were cost neutral to the organisation through savings made from a reduction in officer numbers due to increased working hours, reduced office footprints, reduced overtime, reduced recruitment costs, efficiencies in IT Transformation and reduced IT costs.

4.2.16. The cost savings from spot rate expansion is significant and the savings and productivity gains far outweigh any costs to the Agency. For example, at 6.4% the turnover in spot rated roles is far lower than the 11% for the standard pay range.

4.2.17. There is also a measurable reduction in unexpected leave costs from sickness as shown in Annex A, Table 50 with fewer working days lost due to sickness from officers on spot rates compared to the standard pay range.

4.2.18. An officer moving to spot rate is contractually required to work an additional 3 hours per week. Extrapolating this across the workforce can create significant additional resource, as shown in Annex A Table 49 where we see, on average, the equivalent to an additional 225.98 FTE each year from additional contracted hours worked by our spot rated officers.

4.2.19. RECOMMENDATION 2: NCARRB endorses a feasibility review to consider a competence based pay framework in 2024/25, with an interim measure of modest expansion of spot rated roles from August 2024.

4.3. Affordability and total cost

4.3.1. The recommendations for change to NCA pay this year (and in the longer term) must be affordable and any longer term costs from increased pay must be sustainable for the future.

4.3.2. The NCA budgeted for a 5% pay award effective from 1 August 2023. The additional 2% to fund a 7% headline award would cost approximately £2.8m per annum and will be found from efficiency savings that do not adversely impact front line operational activity. The Agency also budgeted for the £1,700 per FTE (£1,500 plus Employers NICs) one-off payment. The £1,700 cost per FTE budget was retained even though there was some uncertainty on approval at the time business plans and budgets were finalised.

Table IX: Recommendations

Recommendations	Cost (£)	Cost (%)
Recommendation 1: NCA officers (both powered and non-powered) to receive 7%, an equivalent headline pay award to the police award for 2023/24. This represents a consolidated pay award and uplift in location allowances totalling 7%.	£17,457,946	7%
Recommendation 2: NCA undertakes a feasibility review of a competency based pay framework in 2024/25 with an interim expansion of spot rates roles from August 2024.	Nil Cost in 2023/24	Nil Cost in 2023/24
Total Costs	£17,757,946	7%

Chapter 5

5. NCA’s Long Term Plan for Reform of its Pay and Employment Framework

5.1.1. In the longer term, the NCA is seeking reforms to its pay arrangements to ensure that the Agency can:

• support recruitment of capable officers;

• ensure retention of NCA officers in critical roles to prevent vacancies;

• support a ‘One NCA’ culture and increase porosity - allowing employees to seek, where appropriate, moves from one Command or Profession to another in the organisation;

• ensure that pay arrangements are seen as fair by our employees, and who understand the rational for why some roles or individuals are paid more than others. This is critical to improve motivation of employees, and avoid potential legal vulnerabilities; and

• ensure that arrangements are affordable and allow the flexible targeting of money in the most cost effective manner to individuals who should be paid more than the standard rate.

5.1.2. To guarantee that the long term reforms are affordable to the NCA, the intention over the next 12 months is to review the employment framework; working pattern model; and terms and conditions of all employees. The aim is to identify reforms that would make NCA more efficient and productive.

5.1.3. Informed by the outcome of the feasibility review of a competence based pay framework (Recommendation 2), the Agency will be able to develop a single remuneration model which is fair, facilitates movement within the Agency and attractive to high quality new recruits.

5.1.4. The NCA intends to present the findings from this review alongside the potential savings the reforms might make and seek recommendations from NCARRB in 2024/25 that reform pay and the employment framework, are affordable and will improve long term efficiency.

5.1.5. The most likely vehicle for implementation of this package of change is through seeking collective agreement with NCA’s recognised trade unions.

5.1.6. With the Agency increasingly becoming a technology and data led organisation, we require a more agile pay framework to manage pay differentials to the external market and address the well documented retention challenges. Without this, it will be increasingly difficult to achieve our technology transformation in order to protect the country from serious and organised crime. While technology and data transformation is not the focus of this year’s evidence, it underlines the need to make progress towards meaningful reform rather than primarily focusing on a cost of living uplift.

5.1.7. We must also be mindful of the Agency’s upcoming move of its London estate from Vauxhall to Stratford. Whilst this is a positive driver for change in many ways, it will inevitably have an adverse impact on retention through the next period, and on the economic crime and technology side of the business, it will introduce particular risks regarding comparisons with other public sector organisations in close geographic proximity. We cannot afford to remain in a poorly competitive position through this period of change and risk losing highly skilled staff to our partner organisations.

Annex A: Supporting Data

1. The NCA Workforce

1.1. The Workforce

1.1.1. At 31 August 2022, the Agency had a workforce of 5,898, comprising a mix of directly employed officers, seconded officers, fixed term employees and contingent labour. Their collective skills and diversity of experience are crucial to our operational success.

Table 1: Workforce Employment Status

Workforce by Employment Status	Headcount
Agency Staff	~
Attached Staff	54
Career Break	64
Commercial Contractor	145
External Staff Loaned In to the NCA	18
Fixed Term Contract	69
NCA Staff Loaned Out	19
Outsourced Contractor (Professional Fees)	40
Perm Staff Attached Out	~
Perm Staff Seconded Out	~
Permanent Staff	5400
Seconded Officer Costing	48
Seconded Officer Non Costing	16
Student Placement	11
Grand Total	5898

~ denotes 10 or less, including values redacted to safeguard the identity of our Officers.

Table 2: Workforce by Grade

Workforce by Grade	Headcount
NCA Grade 1	108
NCA Grade 2	333
NCA Grade 3	854
NCA Grade 4	1671
NCA Grade 5	2663
NCA Grade 6	269
Grand Total	5898

Table 3: Workforce by Command

Workforce by Command	Headcount
NCA Change	124
NCA Corporate Business Services	174
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	294
NCA Human Resources	191
NCA Integrated Protective Security	147
NCA Intelligence	2209
NCA Investigations	1777
NCA Legal	63
NCA Margin	59
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	290
NCA Strategy	106
NCA Threat Leadership	464
Grand Total	5898

1.1.2. The majority of the workforce sits within the primarily operational functions of Intelligence and Investigations, with Grades 4 & 5 having the highest number of officers.

1.2. Current Spot Rate and Standard Pay Range Frameworks

Table 4: NCA Spot Rate Framework

Grade	SR1 -
Developing	SR2 - Proficient/ Developing at G5	SR3 - Proficient	SR4 - Expert
Grade 1	£72,485	£78,208	–	–
Grade 2	£62,890	£67,835	–	–
Grade 3	£47,380	£50,880	–	–
Grade 4	£42,109	£45,605	–	£47,426
Grade 5	£34,672	£36,037 (Developing 2)	£38,314	£39,831

Table 5: NCA Standard Pay Range Framework

Grade	Minimum	Maximum
Grade 1	£70,179	£85,788
Grade 2	£57,640	£70,403
Grade 3	£47,380	£58,004
Grade 4	£38,642	£46,812
Grade 5	£30,740	£39,648
Grade 6	£22,950	£28,904

1.3. NCA Workforce – Powers

1.3.1. Table 6 provides an overview of powered vs. non-powered officers. Most powered officers are in the commands which are primarily operational, though there are some powered officers in enabling capabilities that are able to support operations where surge capacity is required (shown in table 10).

Table 6: Powers by Command

Workforce by Command	Powers	No Powers	Headcount
NCA Change	~	~	~
NCA Corporate Business Services	~	~	~
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	23	271	294
NCA Human Resources	21	170	191
NCA Integrated Protective Security	45	102	147
NCA Intelligence	626	1583	2209
NCA Investigations	1258	519	1777
NCA Legal	~	~	~
NCA Margin[footnote 6]	~	~	~
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	34	256	290
NCA Strategy	~	~	~
NCA Threat Leadership	145	319	464
Grand Total	2178	3720	5898

~ denotes 10 or less, including values redacted to safeguard the identity of our Officers.

Table 7: Powers by Command by percentage

Command	Powers	No Powers
Change	5.71%	94.29%
Corporate Business Services	1.01%	98.98%
Digital, Data and Technology	8.92%	91.08%
Human Resources	09.05%	90.95%
Integrated Protective Security	32.20%	67.80%
Intelligence	28.69%	71.31%
Investigations	70.88%	29.12%
Legal	0.00%	100.00%
National Economic Crime Centre	10.44%	89.56%
Strategy	3.94%	96.06%
Threat Leadership	33.18%	66.82%
Grand Total	37%	63%

1.3.2. Table 8 shows that the majority of our powered roles are officers graded 4 and 5, which are more frontline facing roles.

Table 8: Powers by Grade

Workforce by Grade	Powers	No Powers	Headcount
Grade 1	~	~	~
Grade 2	~	~	~
Grade 3	330	524	854
Grade 4	681	990	1671
Grade 5	1027	1636	2663
Grade 6	~	~	~
Grand Total	2178	3720	5898

~ denotes 10 or less, including values redacted to safeguard the identity of our Officers.

Table 9: Powers by Working Pattern

Workforce by Working Pattern	Powers	No Powers	Headcount
Full Time	34.42%	56.35%	90.77%
Part Time	2.00%	7.23%	9.23%
Grand Total	36.42%	63.58%	100.00%

Table 10: Powers by Gender

Workforce by Gender	Powers	No Powers	Headcount
Female	11.11%	33.54%	44.65%
Male	25.31%	30.04%	55.35%
Grand Total	36.42%	63.58%	100.00%

Table 11: Powers by Role Type

Workforce by Role Type[footnote 7]	Powers	No Powers	Headcount
Enabling Functions	2.10%	22.73%	24.83%
Operational	36.97%	38.20%	75.17%
Grand Total	39.07%	60.93%	100.00%

2. Diversity Data

2.1. Diversity

2.1.1. A diverse workforce enables a culture where different perspectives and knowledge are embraced to innovatively combat newly emerging criminal threats.

2.1.2. Diversity is improving, and the Agency continues to embrace initiatives such as the NCA ODP to create opportunities for increased representation. This is being furthered through our Inclusion and Culture strategy

2.2. Overall Workforce

Table 12: Workforce by Age

Workforce by Age Band	Headcount
16 - 19	0.02%
20 - 29	14.60%
30 - 39	24.61%
40 - 49	24.85%
50 - 59	28.34%
60 - 64	6.09%
65 & over	1.42%
Not Declared	0.07%
Grand Total	100.00%

Table 13: Workforce by Gender

Workforce by Gender	Headcount
Female	44.89%
Male	55.11%
Grand Total	100.00%

Table 14: Workforce by Ethnicity

Workforce by Ethnicity	Headcount
EM/Other	9.46%
Not Declared	12.26%
Prefer not to say	3.59%
White	74.69%
Grand Total	100.00%

Table 15: Workforce by Religion/Faith

Workforce by Religion/Faith	Headcount
Christian	36.13%
No Religion	35.67%
Not Declared	16.97%
Prefer not to say	5.76%
Muslim	2.02%
Hindu	1.02%
Sikh	0.85%
Any other religion	0.81%
Atheist	0.29%
Buddhist	0.19%
Jewish	0.17%
Agnostic	0.08%
Humanist	0.02%
Islam	0.02%
Pelagianism	0.02%
Grand Total	100.00%

Table 16: Workforce by Disability Declaration

Workforce by Disability Declaration	Headcount
Disabled	4.37%
Not Declared	68.06%
Not Disabled	27.56%
Grand Total	100.00%

Table 17: Workforce by Sexual Orientation

Workforce by Sexual Orientation	Headcount
Heterosexual/Straight	75.23%
LGBT	3.76%
Not Declared	14.61%
Prefer not to say	6.39%
Grand Total	100.00%

2.3. Commands

2.3.1. Table 17 shows that proportionately, fewer officers work part time hours in commands that are primarily operational. The data also shows that female representation is higher within our enabling functions teams.

Table 18: Workforce by Working Pattern

Workforce by Command - Working Pattern	Full Time	Part Time	Headcount
NCA Change	~	~	~
NCA Corporate Business Services	148	26	174
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	267	27	294
NCA Human Resources	152	39	191
NCA Integrated Protective Security	~	~	~
NCA Intelligence	2015	194	2209
NCA Investigations	1631	146	1777
NCA Legal	~	~	~
NCA Margin	~	~	~
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	260	30	290
NCA Strategy	~	~	~
NCA Threat Leadership	427	37	464
Grand Total	5350	548	5898

~ denotes 10 or less, including values redacted to safeguard the identity of our Officers.

Table 19: Workforce by Gender

Workforce by Command –Gender	Female	Male	Headcount
NCA Change	61	63	124
NCA Corporate Business Services	99	75	174
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	132	162	294
NCA Human Resources	129	62	191
NCA Integrated Protective Security	65	82	147
NCA Intelligence	993	1216	2209
NCA Investigations	684	1093	1777
NCA Legal	39	24	63
NCA Margin	31	28	59
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	150	140	290
NCA Strategy	67	39	106
NCA Threat Leadership	202	262	464
Grand Total	2652	3246	5898

2.3.2. Table 19 shows the split between operational and enabling function type roles by command. This highlights that even though Intelligence and Investigations are primarily operational commands they are both supported by enabling function type roles, between 3-3.46% of the workforce in each command.

Table 20: Workforce by Role Type

Workforce by Command - Role Type	Enabling Functions	Operational	Headcount
NCA Change	1.65%	0.04%	1.68%
NCA Corporate Business Services	2.85%	0.00%	2.85%
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	3.05%	1.77%	4.83%
NCA Human Resources	3.09%	0.00%	3.09%
NCA Integrated Protective Security	1.33%	1.30%	2.63%
NCA Intelligence	3.46%	35.23%	38.69%
NCA Investigations	3.00%	27.77%	30.77%
NCA Legal	1.01%	0.00%	1.01%
NCA Margin	0.04%	0.00%	0.04%
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	1.30%	3.57%	4.86%
NCA Strategy	1.54%	0.15%	1.68%
NCA Threat Leadership	2.52%	5.34%	7.86%
Grand Total	24.83%	75.17%	100.00%

Table 21: Workforce by Gender and Role Type

Workforce by Gender and Role Type	Enabling Functions	Operational	Headcount
Female	15.69%	29.62%	45.31%
Male	9.14%	45.55%	54.69%
Grand Total	24.83%	75.17%	100.00%

Table 22: Workforce by Command, Gender and Role Type

Workforce by Command, Gender and Role Type	Enabling Functions	Operational	Headcount
Change Female	0.95%	0.02%	0.97%
Change Male	0.69%	0.02%	0.71%
Change Total	1.65%	0.04%	1.68%
Corporate Business Services Female	1.74%	0.00%	1.74%
Corporate Business Services Male	1.12%	0.00%	1.12%
Corporate Business Services Total	2.85%	0.00%	2.85%
Digital, Data and Technology Female	1.66%	0.64%	2.30%
Digital, Data and Technology Male	1.39%	1.13%	2.52%
Digital, Data and Technology Total	3.05%	1.77%	4.83%
Human Resources Female	2.05%	0.00%	2.05%
Human Resources Male	1.04%	0.00%	1.04%
Human Resources Total	3.09%	0.00%	3.09%
Integrated Protective Security Female	0.73%	0.42%	1.15%
Integrated Protective Security Male	0.60%	0.88%	1.48%
Integrated Protective Security Total	1.33%	1.30%	2.63%
Intelligence Female	2.41%	15.16%	17.57%
Intelligence Male	1.04%	20.08%	21.12%
Intelligence Total	3.46%	35.23%	38.69%
Investigations Female	2.14%	9.69%	11.83%
Investigations Male	0.86%	18.08%	18.94%
Investigations Total	3.00%	27.77%	30.77%
Legal Female	0.68%	0.00%	0.68%
Legal Male	0.33%	0.00%	0.33%
Legal Total	1.01%	0.00%	1.01%
Margin Female	0.04%	0.00%	0.04%
Margin Total	0.04%	0.00%	0.04%
National Economic Crime Centre Female	0.84%	1.70%	2.54%
National Economic Crime Centre Male	0.46%	1.87%	2.32%
National Economic Crime Centre Total	1.30%	3.57%	4.86%
Strategy Female	0.99%	0.07%	1.06%
Strategy Male	0.55%	0.07%	0.62%
Strategy Total	1.54%	0.15%	1.68%
Threat Leadership Female	1.46%	1.92%	3.38%
Threat Leadership Male	1.06%	3.42%	4.48%
Threat Leadership Total	2.52%	5.34%	7.86%
Grand Total	24.83%	75.17%	100.00%

2.4. NCA Grades

2.4.1. The data shows that 8.69% of the workforce are part time with Grades 4, 5 and 6 having a higher ratio of which the highest ratio being at Grade 5.

Table 23: Grade by Working Pattern

Workforce by Grade	Full Time	Part Time	Headcount
Grade 1	1.75%	0.07%	1.82%
Grade 2	5.40%	0.25%	5.65%
Grade 3	13.61%	0.88%	14.49%
Grade 4	25.90%	2.44%	28.34%
Grade 5	41.17%	3.95%	45.13%
Grade 6	3.48%	1.09%	4.57%
Grand Total	91.31%	8.69%	100.00%

2.4.2. Table 23 shows there is a higher proportion of females than males at Grade 5 and 6. From Grade 4 the difference shows a higher ratio of males to females, with males more than twice as likely to be in a senior role at Grade 1.

Table 24: Grade by Gender

Workforce by Grade	Female	Male	Headcount
Grade 1	28	80	108
Grade 2	120	213	333
Grade 3	317	537	854
Grade 4	670	1001	1671
Grade 5	1333	1330	2663
Grade 6	184	85	269
Grand Total	2652	3246	5898

2.5. Spot Rate Eligibility

2.5.1. Upon the introduction of spot rates, officers were able to voluntarily opt into the framework. This means a proportion of our work force (7.61%) are in spot rate posts, whilst remaining on the Standard Pay framework.

These officers are eligible to opt into spot rate terms at any time. The following data tables detail officers eligible to opt in to spot rate as of August 2022.

2.5.2. The data in tables 24-30 is based on NCA employees on NCA Terms & Conditions.

Table 25: SR Eligibility by Gender

Eligibility by Gender	Female	Male	Headcount
Spot Rate Officers	16.06%	24.33%	40.39%
Eligible for Spot Rate	2.62%	4.99%	7.61%
Standard Pay Range	27.02%	24.98%	52.00%
Grand Total	45.70%	54.30%	100.00%

2.5.3. The highest percentage of officers eligible to opt into spot rates are in the higher age brackets, 3.66% of 50-59 year olds and 2.05% of 40-49 year olds.

Table 26: SR Eligibility by Age

Eligibility by Age Group	Spot Rate Officers	Eligible for Spot Rate	Standard Pay Range	Headcount
16 - 19	0.00%	0.00%	0.02%	0.02%
20 - 29	6.85%	0.18%	7.90%	14.93%
30 - 39	12.20%	0.52%	12.47%	25.19%
40 - 49	9.01%	2.05%	13.60%	24.65%
50 - 59	10.23%	3.66%	14.23%	28.12%
60 - 64	1.79%	1.00%	3.01%	5.81%
65 & over	0.31%	0.20%	0.77%	1.27%
Grand Total	40.39%	7.61%	52.00%	100.00%

Table 27: SR Eligibility by Grade

Eligibility by Grade	Spot Rate Officers	Eligible for Spot Rate	Standard Pay Range	Headcount
Grade 1	0.84%	0.07%	0.83%	1.74%
Grade 2	2.24%	0.16%	3.01%	5.42%
Grade 3	0.29%	0.20%	13.76%	14.25%
Grade 4	12.76%	2.30%	14.05%	29.10%
Grade 5	24.26%	4.88%	15.79%	44.93%
Grade 6	0.00%	0.00%	4.56%	4.56%
Grand Total	40.39%	7.61%	52.00%	100.00%

Table 28: SR Eligibility by Religion/Faith

Eligibility by Religion / Faith	Spot Rate Officers	Eligible for Spot Rate	Standard Pay Range	Headcount
Christian	14.71%	2.87%	19.31%	36.89%
No Religion	16.92%	1.60%	18.25%	36.77%
Not Declared	4.76%	2.31%	7.75%	14.82%
Prefer not to say	2.44%	0.59%	2.87%	5.90%
Muslim	0.47%	0.04%	1.58%	2.08%
Hindu	0.20%	0.07%	0.75%	1.02%
Sikh	0.41%	0.00%	0.43%	0.84%
Any other religion	0.31%	0.05%	0.48%	0.84%
Atheist	0.05%	0.04%	0.22%	0.31%
Buddhist	0.04%	0.02%	0.14%	0.20%
Jewish	0.07%	0.02%	0.09%	0.18%
Agnostic	0.02%	0.00%	0.07%	0.09%
Humanist	0.00%	0.00%	0.02%	0.02%
Islam	0.00%	0.00%	0.02%	0.02%
Pelagianism	0.00%	0.00%	0.02%	0.02%
Grand Total	40.39%	7.61%	52.00%	100.00%

2.5.4. When looking at the ethnicity of the workforce population, we can see that officers who identify as White are the highest percentage of officers eligible to opt into Spot Rate (5.49%).

Table 29: SR by Ethnicity

Eligibility by Ethnicity	Spot Rate Officers	Eligible for Spot Rate	Standard Pay Range	Headcount
EM/Other	2.87%	0.41%	6.33%	9.62%
Not Declared	3.53%	1.44%	5.01%	9.98%
Prefer not to say	1.67%	0.27%	1.70%	3.64%
White	32.32%	5.49%	38.96%	76.76%
Grand Total	40.39%	7.61%	52.00%	100.00%

Table 30: SR by Disability Declaration

Eligibility by Disability Declaration	Spot Rate Officers	Eligible for Spot Rate	Standard Pay Range	Headcount
Disabled	1.26%	0.43%	2.91%	4.59%
Not Declared	28.53%	4.40%	33.66%	66.59%
Not Disabled	10.60%	2.78%	15.43%	28.82%
Grand Total	40.39%	7.61%	52.00%	100.00%

Table 31: SR Eligibility by Sexual Orientation

Eligibility by Sexual Orientation	Spot Rate Officers	Eligible for Spot Rate	Standard Pay Range	Headcount
Heterosexual/ Straight	31.76%	5.06%	40.37%	77.19%
LGBT	1.54%	0.18%	2.14%	3.86%
Not Declared	4.27%	1.87%	6.24%	12.38%
Prefer not to say	2.82%	0.50%	3.25%	6.57%
Grand Total	40.39%	7.61%	52.00%	100.00%

2.6. Terms and Conditions

2.6.1. The majority of the workforce, just over 59%, remains on the Standard Pay Range. Just under 41% of our workforce are on spot rates, with other T&Cs covering 0.15% of our organisation. This is an improvement on last year where spot rates covered 39% and other T&Cs covered 0.22% of our workforce.

Table 32: T&Cs by Gender

T&Cs by Gender	Female	Male	Headcount
NCA Standard Pay Range	29.16%	29.97%	59.13%
NCA Spot Rate	16.11%	24.61%	40.72%
Other T&Cs	0.04%	0.11%	0.15%
Grand Total	45.31%	54.69%	100.00%

Table 33: T&Cs by Working Pattern

T&Cs by Working Pattern	5 day Week	Flexible Working	Shift Working	Headcount
NCA Standard Pay Range	47.85%	10.40%	0.88%	59.13%
NCA Spot Rate	37.30%	3.25%	0.16%	40.72%
Other T&Cs	0.11%	0.04%	0.00%	0.15%
Grand Total	85.26%	13.70%	1.04%	100.00%

Table 34: T&Cs by Working Hours

T&Cs by Working Hours	Full Time	Part Time	Headcount
NCA Standard Pay Range	52.20%	6.93%	59.13%
NCA Spot Rate	38.73%	1.99%	40.72%
Other T&Cs	0.15%	0.00%	0.15%
Grand Total	91.08%	8.92%	100.00%

2.6.2. A higher proportion of officers on the spot rate pay structure tend to hold powers

Table 35: T&Cs by Powers

T&Cs by Powers Split	Powers	No Powers	Headcount
NCA Standard Pay Range	16.18%	42.95%	59.13%
NCA Spot Rate	22.86%	17.86%	40.72%
Other T&Cs	0.04%	0.11%	0.15%
Grand Total	39.07%	60.93%	100.00%

Table 36: T&C’s by Age Group

T&Cs by Age	NCA Standard Pay Range	NCA Spot Rate	Other T&Cs	Headcount
16 -19	0.02%	0.00%	0.00%	0.02%
20 - 29	7.97%	6.93%	0.00%	14.90%
30 - 39	12.95%	12.21%	0.00%	25.16%
40 - 49	15.25%	9.09%	0.04%	24.37%
50 - 59	17.88%	10.35%	0.05%	28.29%
60 - 64	4.10%	1.83%	0.04%	5.96%
65 & Over	0.97%	0.31%	0.02%	1.30%
Grand Total	59.13%	40.72%	0.15%	100.00%

Table 37: T&Cs by Ethnicity

T&Cs by Ethnicity	EM/Other	Not Declared	Prefer not to say	White	Headcount
NCA Standard Pay Range	6.73%	6.20%	1.97%	44.23%	59.13%
NCA Spot Rate	2.91%	3.51%	1.68%	32.62%	40.72%
Other T&Cs	0.02%	0.05%	0.00%	0.07%	0.15%
Grand Total	9.65%	9.76%	3.66%	76.92%	100.00%

Table 38: T&Cs by Disability Declaration

T&Cs by Disability Declaration	Disabled	Not Declared	Not Disabled	Headcount
NCA Standard Pay Range	3.35%	37.76%	18.03%	59.13%
NCA Spot Rate	1.26%	28.87%	10.59%	40.72%
Other T&Cs	0.00%	0.13%	0.02%	0.15%
Grand Total	4.61%	66.76%	28.63%	100.00%

Table 39: T&Cs by Sexual Orientation

T&Cs by Sexual Orientation	Heterosexua l/ Straight	LGB	Not Declared	Prefer not to say	Headcount
NCA Standard Pay Range	45.24%	2.30%	7.84%	3.75%	59.13%
NCA Spot Rate	32.05%	1.55%	4.26%	2.85%	40.72%
Other T&Cs	0.05%	0.02%	0.07%	0.00%	0.15%
Grand Total	77.35%	3.88%	12.18%	6.60%	100.00%

3. NCA Officer Development Programme (ODP)

3.1.1. The NCA ODP is a new learning pathway for officers to gain accreditation in a specific discipline, either in the Intelligence or Investigations Profession. It was launched in August 2022 and saw the first cohort of officers in September 2022. The programme is a 24 month blended training programme which at the end, awards officers with either Intelligence or Investigations accreditation. Officers initially undertake a generic six month training programme during which time they will learn the fundamentals of operational law enforcement. At the conclusion of this period an assessment will identify the career pathway to which the officer will be aligned.

3.1.2. The cohort data below shows the number of officers undertaking the programme. The turnover for this group is low. The diversity of these groups is represented in the ODP diversity statistics shown on the following pages.

Table 40: ODP Cohorts

Cohort	Start Date	Officer Intake	Number of Leavers	Turnover
Cohort 1	2022 Intake	23	1	4%
Cohort 2	2022 Intake	16	0	0%
Cohort 3	2023 Intake	16	0	0%
Cohort 4	2023 Intake	16	0	0%
Total	-	71	1	4

4. NCA Recruitment Activity

4.1. Pipeline Data

4.1.1. During 2021 the NCA has continued to build on the accelerated pace of 2020, though there has been an impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on recruitment. Table 35 shows the changes in recruitment activity from 2019-2022.

Table 41: Number of Candidates added to NCA Pipeline

Month	2019	2020	2021	2022	Number difference 2021 - 2022	Percentage difference 2021 - 2022
January	41	213	102	76	-26	-25%
February	75	271	83	86	3	4%
March	114	133	96	77	-19	-20%
April	83	249	107	94	-13	-12%
May	49	215	109	180	71	65%
June	51	229	130	80	-50	-38%
July	86	162	143	91	-52	-36%
August	71	196	80	90	10	13%
September	86	229	73	32	-41	-56%
October	73	276	80	100	20	25%
November	71	287	124	109	-15	-12%
December	15	40	27	72	45	167%
Total	815	2500	1154	1087	-67	-6%

4.2. Labour Markets

Table 42: Percentage of Candidates by Sector

Agency Candidate Source	Percentage Total
Private	33.24%
Police	29.07%
Civil Service	27.73%
Other	4.71%
Public Sector	2.56%
Education	1.88%
Charity	0.67%
UKIC	0.13%

Table 43: Percentage of Candidates for Operational Commands

Operational Commands Candidate Source	Percentage of Candidates
Police	35.45%
Private Sector	28.76%
Civil Service	22.74%
Other	9.03%
Education	2.01%
Public Sector	1.67%
Charity	0.33%

Table 44: Percentage of Candidates for Enabling Services

Enabling Capabilities Commands Candidate Source	Percentage of Candidates
Civil Service	42.73%
Private Sector	40.91%
Police	8.18%
Other	2.73%
Public Sector	2.73%
Education	1.82%
Charity	0.91%

4.3. Operational Pipeline

4.3.1. When looking at the recruitment of operational roles we can see the challenges the Agency faces. These roles are categorised by the following headings:

• Firearms – These are Specialist roles within our Armed Operations Unit (AOU), these roles can receive the ‘Expert’ spot rate salary.

• Intelligence Officer/Analyst – These are campaigns which fill vacancies across the NCA’s Intelligence command, as either an Intelligence Officer or within an Analyst team.

• Specialist Intelligence – Our specialist Intelligence teams include Forensic roles (physical or digital), Technical Operations and Human Intelligence (HUMINT).

• Investigations Officer – These are frontline roles investigating Serious and Organised Crime, which includes the arresting and interviewing of suspects.

• Specialist Investigations – Our Specialist Investigation teams include Social Workers, Financial Investigators and surveillance.

• Our Intelligence Officer/Analyst and Investigations Officer campaigns have improved considerably, however specialist recruitment has become more challenging.

Table 45: Job Offers by Campaign

Campaigns - Offers	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	Total	Number Difference	Percentage Difference
Firearms	2	18	13	2	2	37	0	0%
Intelligence Officer/Analyst	89	34	242	0	29	394	29	N/A
Investigations Officer	101	80	142	9	75	407	66	733%
Specialist Intelligence and Investigations	70	173	102	127	48	520	-79	-62%
Total	262	305	499	138	154	1358	16	12%

4.3.2. Following the successes in 2020 we are now expanding growth in specialist areas which matches with our goals of expanding the spot rate framework into these role types.

Table 46: Conditional offers by applicant

2018

Recruitment Campaigns – Applicants & Offers	Number of Applicants	Number of Offers	Percentage Conversion of Applicant to Offer
Firearms	38	2	5%
Intelligence Officer/Analyst	481	89	19%
Investigations Officer	486	101	21%
Specialist Intelligence	676	63	9%
Specialist Investigations	51	7	14%
Total	1732	262	15%

2019

Recruitment Campaigns – Applicants & Offers	Number of Applicants	Number of Offers	Percentage Conversion of Applicant to Offer
Firearms	97	18	19%
Intelligence Officer/Analyst	389	34	9%
Investigations Officer	460	80	17%
Specialist Intelligence	1694	138	8%
Specialist Investigations	340	35	10%
Total	2980	305	10%

2020

Recruitment Campaigns – Applicants & Offers	Number of Applicants	Number of Offers	Percentage Conversion of Applicant to Offer
Firearms	96	13	14%
Intelligence Officer/Analyst	1780	242	14%
Investigations Officer	1351	142	11%
Specialist Intelligence & Investigations	3002	102	3%
Total	6229	499	8%

2021

Recruitment Campaigns – Applicants & Offers	Number of Applicants	Number of Offers	Percentage Conversion of Applicant to Offer
Firearms	6	2	33%
Intelligence Officer/Analyst	0	0	NA
Investigations Officer	92	9	10%
Specialist Intelligence & Investigations	470	127	27%
Total	568	138	24%

2022

Recruitment Campaigns – Applicants & Offers	Number of Applicants	Number of Offers	Percentage Conversion of Applicant to Offer
Firearms	34	2	6%
Intelligence Officer/Analyst	408	29	7%
Investigations Officer	544	75	14%
Specialist Intelligence & Investigations	541	48	9%
Total	1527	154	10%

4.4. Internal Transfers

4.4.1. Over the past year, 22 staff moved from Investigations to Intelligence, and 15 moved from Intelligence to Investigations. These are movements taking place outside of the lateral campaign, so will include promotions and other recruitment activities.

Table 47: Internal Transfers from Intelligence to Investigations

Transfers from Intelligence by Grade	Receiving Command: Investigations
Grade 1	0
Grade 2	1
Grade 3	1
Grade 4	2
Grade 5	11
Grade 6	0
Total	15

Table 48: Internal Transfers from Investigations to Intelligence

Grade	Receiving Command: Intelligence
Grade 1	0
Grade 2	1
Grade 3	2
Grade 4	10
Grade 5	9
Grade 6	0
Total	22

5. Productivity Statistics

5.1. Increase in Hours

5.1.1. As the spot rate framework has developed, the number of officers working 40 hours per week has increased annually. Over the period from implementation to date we have seen 3013 officers join the spot rate framework.

5.1.2. That increase in officers on spot rate represents an increase in 244.30 FTE for a 37 hour week, or 225.98 for a 40 hour week.

Table 49: Productivity by Grade

NCA Grade	Increase in officers since SR Implementation	Increase in Hours	Increase in FTE (37 Hours)	Increase in FTE (40 Hours)
Grade 1	57	171	4.62	4.28
Grade 2	147	441	11.92	11.03
Grade 3	7	21	0.57	0.53
Grade 4	995	2985	80.68	74.63
Grade 5	1807	5421	146.51	135.53
Total	3013	9039	244.30	225.98

5.2. Wellbeing and Sickness

5.2.1. The spot rate framework was first introduced in 2018. With the increase in hours from 37 to 40 hours, compared to those on standard terms and conditions, the tables below outlines percentage of sickness days lost. It is evident that although spot rate officers are working three hours extra a week, the data suggests that sickness levels are lower than those officers on the standard pay range.

5.2.2. Absence has been lower during the COVID 19 Pandemic; with spot rate sickness levels are even lower than 2018 and 2019 although these have risen during 2022 with non-spot rate roles seeing a higher sickness rate than spot rate officers.

Table 50: Wellbeing and Sickness by Year

T&C	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Non Spot Rate	1.83%	1.63%	1.57%	1.56%	2.25%
Spot Rate	1.20%	1.20%	0.97%	1.00%	1.72%
Total	1.71%	1.60%	1.53%	1.36%	2.04%

6. Leavers – Attrition Rates

6.1.1. Attrition has been steadily increasing up to April 2020. The impact of COVID-19 has seen on average a 50% significant reduction in leavers from the Agency. Prior to this 2016-17 attrition was at 6.23%, which has risen year on year. The current expected attrition for 2020-2021 is 7.5%.

Table 51: Annual Attrition by Grade

Grade	Average monthly Leavers	16/17	17/18	18/19	19/20	20/21	21/22
Grade 1	0.6	7.87%	7.87%	15.46%	21.15%	12.4%	14.48%
Grade 2	1.8	8.16%	9.27%	11.07%	13.13%	11.8%	11.84%
Grade 3	3.7	7.20%	6.21%	7.47%	10.81%	7.3%	9.04%
Grade 4	5.4	4.34%	5.49%	6.41%	7.44%	5.5%	5.85%
Grade 5	13.2	6.06%	8.09%	8.46%	7.52%	7.5%	6.11%
Grade 6	3.5	11.25%	14.71%	14.97%	14.97%	11.3%	14.45%
Total	28.3	6.23%	7.64%	8.48%	9.03%	7.5%	7.36%

6.1.2. An area where attrition has been quite high has been in our Armed Operations Unit (Firearms), where a combination of an ageing workforce and high numbers of officers moving to the police has meant the team have struggled to maintain operational capacity. In order to alleviate the issue of police transfers we have begun using the expert spot rate within Firearms, since implementation in 2019 leavers within Firearms has reduced down to 5 in 2020 and 6 in 2021 from a high of 12 in 2018.

Table 52: Firearms Leavers

Calendar Year	Civil Service Transfer	Normal Retirement	Resignation	Total
2016	0	4	1	5
2017	0	2	2	4
2018	0	7	5	12
2019	2	4	3	9
2020	1	3	1	5
2021	1	2	3	6
2022	0	2	1	3
Total	4	24	16	44

Table 53: Annual Turnover by Command

Command	Annualised
NCA Change	19.84%
NCA Corporate Business Services	16.87%
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	16.61%
NCA Human Resources	13.95%
NCA Integrated Protective Security	7.89%
NCA Intelligence	6.99%
NCA Investigations	9.62%
NCA Legal	7.84%
NCA Margin	0.00%
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	9.09%
NCA Strategy	22.39%
NCA Threat Leadership	10.32%
Totals	9.74%

Table 54: Turnover by Location outside London

Office	Turnover
Wyboston	16.67%
Hambleton	15.38%
Calder	15.17%
Gatwick	13.89%
Bristol	13.37%
Tamworth	12.50%
Sheffield	11.96%
Spring Gardens	11.09%
Bridgend	10.94%
Exeter	9.43%
Felixstowe	9.09%
Leicester	8.70%
Birmingham	7.94%
Warrington	7.87%

Table 55: Transfers between NCA and Civil Service 01/01/22- 31/12/22

NCA Grade	Transfers out of NCA to Civil Service	Transfers into NCA from Civil Service
Grade 1	2	1
Grade 2	2	4
Grade 3	18	16
Grade 4	32	27
Grade 5	37	38
Grade 6	8	8

7. Leavers – Exit Questionnaire

7.1.1. In order to understand the reasons for our officers leaving, we have examined data from our exit questionnaire. This data has been collected from January 2021 to December 2022. The table below shows that pay and benefits is a concern for officers. Whilst pay and benefits alone with not secure talent in the NCA, it is a key part of our wider reform programme to ensure we keep pace.

Table 56: Exit Questionnaire - Reasons for Leaving

Reasons for leaving[footnote 8]	Number of officers
Career development/promotion	198
Retirement	170
To gain new opportunities	72
Workplace Conflict (bullying, harassment, discrimination, line management issue)	53
To seek different working conditions	50
Pay and Benefits	50
Work-life Balance/Workload	42
Personal circumstances (ill health/family reasons/caring responsibilities)	41
End of Planned contract/secondment/contract	35
Location (leaving area, work nearer home)	27
Grand Total	738

7.1.2. Another primary reason for leaving the Agency was work life balance/workload, to seek different working conditions and personal circumstances (ill health/family reasons/caring responsibilities). We have seen, due to Covid-19, our officers adapting to homeworking well (as a short term measure), and data has outlined that our sickness levels have decreased from previous years. Flexible working may have been a cause of this and partially contributed to a better work life balance, resulting in better productivity for the Agency. The Agency is evaluating the success of this through our hybrid working pilot.

7.1.3. When considering what officers liked the most about working for the NCA, their team and relationships came out top, with their role and the opportunity to work on SOC also featuring highly.

Table 57: Exit Questionnaire - Reasons for Working at NCA

What did you like most about working for the NCA?	%
Your Team/Relationships	42.11%
Your Role/Responsibilities	21.46%
The opportunity to work on Serious Organised crime	19.57%
Working arrangements (e.g. flexible working, work- life balance)	8.37%
Pay & Wider Benefits	3.64%
Learning and Development Opportunities	1.48%
Feeling valued/Recognition	1.08%
NCA Culture	0.94%
Wellbeing and Support Services (e.g. Occupational Health, Employee assistance)	0.54%
Opportunities beyond immediate role (diversity groups, staff boards etc.)	0.40%
Facilities (e.g. Canteen/Gym)	0.40%

Table 58: Exit Questionnaire - Consideration Period for Leaving

	1 – 3 months	4 – 6 months	7 – 9 months	10 – 12 months	Over a year	Total
Consideration period for leaving	141	167	61	101	286	756
Total	141	167	61	101	286	756

Table 59: Exit Questionnaire - Leavers by Command

Command	CS Transfer	Retire	Resign	Other planned reason	Other unplanned reason	Total
Change	4	0	10	9	23	23
Corporate Business Services	2	2	15	5	24	24
Digital, Data and Technology	11	3	22	6	42	42
Human Resources	7	0	14	0	21	21
Integrated Protective Security	4	0	6	0	10	10
Intelligence	29	9	111	6	155	155
Investigations	28	7	133	19	187	187
Legal	0	0	6	0	6	6
National Economic Crime Centre	5	2	23	1	31	31
Strategy	9	3	12	0	24	24
Threat Leadership	13	8	33	1	55	55
Other	0	0	10	4	14	14
Total	112	34	395	51	592	592

Table 60: Exit Questionnaire - Reasons for Choosing New Employer

Reason for choosing new employer[footnote 9]	Number of officers
Type of role	216
Promotion	113
Pay	97
Location	66
Organisational values	64
Flexible Working	63
Learning & Development	62
Culture	45
Wellbeing	13
Facilities	11
Opportunity	11

8. Other Pay Elements

8.1. Other

8.1.1. As a law enforcement Agency we need to prepared to react to the changing nature of crime, this includes deploying officers outside of working hours and going beyond our normal working week. Officers at Grades 6-3 inclusive are entitled to request payment or time off in lieu (TOIL) for overtime worked, with the exception of Grade 3 officers on spot rates.

8.1.2. Authorised overtime is payable at the following rates:

• Overtime worked on a rostered working or non-working day is paid at plain time up to 37 hours (or 40 hours if on spot rate framework) per week;

• Overtime worked on a rostered working or non-working day is paid at time and a half rate where over 37 hours (or 40 hours) are worked;

• Overtime worked on a rostered rest day or Bank Holiday with less than 14 calendar days’ notice is paid at double time (with no requirement to have worked 37 (or 40) hours);

• Overtime worked on a rostered rest day or Bank Holiday where 14 or more days’ notice is paid at plain time in line with i) and ii) above);

8.2. Overtime

8.2.1. During 2020-21 the NCA spent £13.31m on overtime with the majority of overtime claimed in operational roles, with Intelligence and Investigations the biggest claimants.

Table 61: Total Overtime Claimed by Command

Command	Total Overtime claimed
NCA Change	£28,688
NCA Corporate Business Services	£121,356
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	£316,087
NCA Human Resources	£184,105
NCA Integrated Protective Security	£386,298
NCA Intelligence	£4,842,031
NCA Investigations	£8,808,159
NCA Legal	£2,578
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	£158,497
NCA Strategy	£150,862
NCA Threat Leadership	£686,300
Total	£15,684,963

8.2.2. At the NCA officers at Grades 3-6 are eligible to claim overtime, the below table shows that Grades 4 and 5 are the highest claimants, which matches with those two grades being the biggest grades in the Agency.

Table 62: Total Overtime Claimed by Grade

Grade	Total Overtime claimed
Grade 3	£2,103,341
Grade 4	£6,112,514
Grade 5	£6,606,358
Grade 6	£862,749
Grand Total	£15,684,963

8.2.3. Looking at overtime claims by officers with and without powers, the split favours with powers which is to be expected due to officers being required to be deployed regularly.

Table 63: Total Overtime Claimed by Powers

Powers	Total
Powers	64%
No Powers	36%
Total	100%

8.2.4. The tables below show the diversity & inclusion characteristics of overtime, showing the gender split, ethnicity, age groups and working patterns of claimants. The percentage breakdowns broadly reflect the NCA workforce, with there being minor differences in some areas.

Table 64: Total Overtime Claimed by Gender

Gender	Total
Female	27.48%
Male	72.52%
Total	100.00%

Table 65: Total Overtime Claimed by Ethnicity

Ethnicity	Total
Ethnic Minority	6.09%
Not Declared	11.04%
Prefer not to say	4.56%
White	78.31%
Total	100.00%

Table 66: Total Overtime Claimed by Age Group

Age Group	Total
20 - 29	8.07%
30 - 39	20.15%
40 - 49	26.18%
50 - 59	37.88%
60 - 64	6.47%
65 & over	1.24%
Total	100.00%

Table 67: Total Overtime Claimed by Working Pattern

Working Pattern	Total
5 day Week	91.12%
Flexible Working	6.24%
Shift Working	2.64%
Total	100.00%

8.3. Contingent Labour

8.3.1. During 2022-23 we paid out 5.45 in contingent labour costs, with the majority spend being in DDaT and Corporate Business Services which are relatively small commands. Some of this spend will expected but the effects of this need to be investigated in preparation for the potential three year pay deal.

Table 68: Contingent Labour Costs by Command

Command	Total Spend To Date (£m)
Investigations	0.71
Intelligence	0.21
Threat Leadership	0.15
NECC	0.00
DDaT	1.89
Strategy and Change	0.48
HR	0.01
CBS	1.87
SARS	0.12
Total	5.45

8.4. People Survey

Table 69: 2022 People Survey Results - Pay

People Survey	Result	Percentage point change
Pay & Benefits	22%	-12%
Overall engagement	59%	-3%
Pay comparison with other organisations	20%	-11%

8.5. Location Allowance

Table 70: Proposed option for Location Allowance Uplifts

Allowance Type	Current Allowance	Proposed 7% Uplift
London Weighting Allowance	£3,595	£3,847
South East Allowance	£2,876	£3,077
Total Cost	-	£500,000

9. Salary Analysis

9.1. Spot Rate Framework

9.1.1. The spot rate framework allows our officers to progress along a number of spot rate values as their skills and experience builds. The below table shows which spot rate value our officers currently are on as of 1st April 2023.

Table 71: Number of officers on SR by Grade

Spot Rate Values and Grade	Number of Officers
NCA Grade 1	40
SR1	16
SR2	24
NCA Grade 2	117
SR1	30
SR2	87
NCA Grade 3	7
SR1	3
SR2	4
NCA Grade 4	677
SR1	166
SR2	501
Expert Rate	10
NCA Grade 5	1428
SR1	310
SR2	444
SR3	643
Expert Rate	31
Total	2269

9.1.2. Due to the job market which we recruit from, the majority of officers on the spot rate framework are male. One of the priorities for the Agency is making our workforce more diverse. As officers progress through the ODP, we expect to see more females on spot rates. It is important we provide female officers with opportunities to progress up the grade structure. At grade 1 we only have 7 female officers on the spot rate framework compared to 33 male officers; it is the differences within the spot rate structure which will have the biggest impact on the gender pay gap.

Table 72: Number of officers on SR by Grade and Gender

Spot Rate Values and Grade	Female	Male
NCA Grade 1	7	33
SR1	5	11
SR2	2	12
NCA Grade 2	26	91
SR1	10	20
SR2	16	71
NCA Grade 3	1	6
SR1	1	2
SR2	0	4
NCA Grade 4	211	466
SR1	62	104
SR2	149	352
Expert Rate	0	10
NCA Grade 5	656	771
SR1	177	133
SR2	222	222
SR3	254	389
Expert Rate	3	28
Total	901	1368

9.1.3. If we look at the ethnicity, we see a similar breakdown with the number of EM officers at Grade 1 being zero, with the majority of officers at Grades 4 and 5. As we move towards producing our ethnicity pay gap report, we need to improve opportunities for EM officers at the highest grades. Similar to the gender pay gap, it will be differences in the spot rate framework that will drive the ethnicity pay gap.

Table 73: Number of Officers by Grade and Ethnicity

Spot Rate Values and Grade	White	EM/Other	Prefer not to say	Not Declared
NCA Grade 1	39	0	0	1
G1 SR1	15	0	0	1
G1 SR2	24	0	0	0
NCA Grade 2	97	3	4	13
G2 SR1	26	2	0	2
G2 SR2	71	1	4	11
NCA Grade 3	0	0	0	2
G3 SR1	2	0	0	1
G3 SR2	3	0	0	1
NCA Grade 4	525	41	30	81
G4 SR1	128	15	3	20
G4 SR2	389	26	26	60
G4 Expert Rate	8	0	1	1
NCA Grade 5	1157	120	56	95
G5 SR1	244	34	16	16
G5 SR2	352	45	22	25
G5 SR3	533	41	17	52
G5 Expert Rate	28	0	1	2
Total	1823	164	90	192

9.2. Standard Pay Range

9.2.1. As shown in Tables 32-39majority of our officers are on the standard pay range. The below breakdown shows the position in the pay range at each grade for officers on the standard pay range.

Table 74: Standard Pay Range by Grade

Standard Pay Range	Number of Officers
NCA Grade 1	43
Grade Minimum	24
First Quartile	7
Second Quartile	4
Third Quartile	5
Fourth Quartile	3
Grade Maximum	0
NCA Grade 2	149
Grade Minimum	119
First Quartile	7
Second Quartile	9
Third Quartile	10
Fourth Quartile	2
Grade Maximum	2
NCA Grade 3	691
Grade Minimum	483
First Quartile	83
Second Quartile	73
Third Quartile	41
Fourth Quartile	5
Grade Maximum	6
NCA Grade 4	905
Grade Minimum	488
First Quartile	83
Second Quartile	114
Third Quartile	107
Fourth Quartile	50
Grade Maximum	63
NCA Grade 5	1135
Grade Minimum	625
First Quartile	98
Second Quartile	118
Third Quartile	184
Fourth Quartile	95
Grade Maximum	15
NCA Grade 6	313
Grade Minimum	182
First Quartile	7
Second Quartile	12
Third Quartile	62
Fourth Quartile	36
Grade Maximum	14
Total	3236

9.2.2. When looking at the grade breakdown, we can start to see some of the challenges we face with the gender pay gap, with the majority of female officers sitting in the lower end of each grade although the gap is starting to improve on the standard pay range.

Table 75: Standard Pay Range by Grade and Gender

Standard Pay Range	Female	Male
NCA Grade 1	15	28
Grade Minimum	9	15
First Quartile	3	4
Second Quartile	2	2
Third Quartile	1	4
Fourth Quartile	0	3
Grade Maximum	0	0
NCA Grade 2	69	80
Grade Minimum	58	61
First Quartile	4	3
Second Quartile	3	6
Third Quartile	3	7
Fourth Quartile	0	2
Grade Maximum	1	1
NCA Grade 3	248	443
Grade Minimum	198	285
First Quartile	21	62
Second Quartile	13	60
Third Quartile	15	26
Fourth Quartile	1	4
Grade Maximum	0	6
NCA Grade 4	435	470
Grade Minimum	280	208
First Quartile	36	47
Second Quartile	53	60
Third Quartile	93	74
Fourth Quartile	34	36
Grade Maximum	4	45
NCA Grade 5	642	493
Grade Minimum	395	230
First Quartile	63	35
Second Quartile	53	65
Third Quartile	93	91
Fourth Quartile	34	61
Grade Maximum	4	11
NCA Grade 6	206	107
Grade Minimum	121	61
First Quartile	4	3
Second Quartile	8	4
Third Quartile	37	25
Fourth Quartile	30	6
Grade Maximum	6	8
Grand Total	1615	1621

9.2.3. As with the spot rate framework, the number of EM officers at Grade 1 is low, with EM officers on the whole being at the lower end of the grade pay range.

Table 76: Standard Pay Range by Grade and Ethnicity

Standard Pay Range	White	EM/Other	Prefer not to say	Not Declared
NCA Grade 1	36	1	1	5
Grade Minimum	21	0	1	2
First Quartile	6	0	0	1
Second Quartile	3	1	0	0
Third Quartile	4	0	0	1
Fourth Quartile	2	0	0	1
Grade Maximum	0	0	0	0
NCA Grade 2	115	13	5	16
Grade Minimum	91	10	5	13
First Quartile	6	0	0	1
Second Quartile	7	1	0	1
Third Quartile	8	1	0	1
Fourth Quartile	2	0	0	0
Grade Maximum	1	1	0	0
NCA Grade 3	567	50	25	49
Grade Minimum	386	45	20	32
First Quartile	73	1	2	7
Second Quartile	60	2	3	8
Third Quartile	37	2	0	2
Fourth Quartile	5	0	0	0
Grade Maximum	6	0	0	0
NCA Grade 4	691	100	26	88
Grade Minimum	359	79	10	40
First Quartile	64	6	2	11
Second Quartile	97	6	1	10
Third Quartile	86	5	5	11
Fourth Quartile	33	3	3	11
Grade Maximum	52	1	5	5
NCA Grade 5	815	151	43	126
Grade Minimum	454	97	29	45
First Quartile	69	16	1	12
Second Quartile	86	16	3	13
Third Quartile	128	19	7	30
Fourth Quartile	68	3	2	22
Grade Maximum	10	0	1	4
NCA Grade 6	217	67	8	21
Grade Minimum	121	46	4	11
First Quartile	4	2	1	0
Second Quartile	8	2	1	1
Third Quartile	44	12	1	5
Fourth Quartile	31	3	1	1
Grade Maximum	9	2	0	3
Grand Total	2441	382	108	305

10. Market Comparators

Table 77: Pay Comparisons for Key Roles Across Sectors

Job Family	Job Title	Market Comparator	NCA Grade	NCA Salary Median	Market Salary	Difference (£)
Investigations	Firearms officer	Police	5	£39,831	£41,130	-£1,299
Investigations	Chief Supt	Police	1	£78,208	£93,651	-£15,443
Investigations	Supt	Police	2	£67,835	£84,783	-£16,948
Investigations	Inspector	Police	3	£47,380	£59,064	-£11,684
Investigations	Sergeant	Police	4	£45,605	£48,129	-£2,524
Investigations	Constable	Police	5	£36,037	£43,032	-£6,995
Digital, Data & Technology	Head of DDAT	Civil Service	1	£73,179	£90,709	-£17,530
Digital, Data & Technology	DDAT Senior Manager	Civil Service	2	£60,640	£75,800	-£15,160
Digital, Data & Technology	DDAT Manager	Civil Service	3	£50,380	£56,297	-£5,917
Digital, Data & Technology	Senior DDAT Officer	Civil Service	4	£38,642	£42,119	-£3,477
Digital, Data & Technology	DDAT Officer	Civil Service	5	£30,740	£34,153	-£3,413
Safeguarding	Social Worker	Local Councils	5	£33,445	£42,000	-£8,555
Commercial & Procurement	Head of Procurement	Civil Service	1	£73,179	£88,061	-£14,882
Commercial & Procurement	Procurement Senior Manager	Civil Service	2	£60,640	£74,767	-£14,127
Commercial & Procurement	Procurement Manager	Civil Service	3	£47,380	£53,771	-£6,391
Threat Leadership	Digital Forensics Specialist	Police	4	£40,563	£43,000	-£2,437
Threat Leadership	Software Engineer/ Developer	Police	4	£38,642	£43,127	-£4,485
Threat Leadership	Senior Data Scientist	Police	4	£38,642	£56,859	-£18,217
Threat Leadership	Data Scientist	Police	5	£30,740	£41,928	-£11,188

*Data sourced using Civil Service HR Specialist Pay Report (unpublished), Met friendly pay scales, Police Force job sites, Civil Service Jobs, Indeed, IDR Benchmarking report for the NCA (unpublished), National Careers Service for Social Worker salary and other job boards including Local council job sites.

Table 78: Median Pay Gap Between NCA and Police

Rank	Chief Supt/ NCA Grade 1	Supt / NCA Grade 2	Chief Inspector / NCA Grade 3	Sergeant / NCA Grade 4	Constable / NCA Grade 5
2021	£19,180	£16,701	£15,252	£6,018	£8,358
2020	£21,164	£21,951	£15,252	£6,018	£7,167
2019	£22,293	£19,927	£13,972	£5,262	£7,461
2018	£18,028	£18,667	£12,613	£3,983	£6,508
2017	£19,064	£16,710	£12,187	£4,193	£6,927
2016	£17,179	£15,223	£11,321	£5,491	£9,963
2015	£17,010	£14,913	£10,087	£4,320	£8,650
2014	£8,603	£10,967	£8,979	£3,816	£8,221

Table 79: Pay Bill per head for NCA and Police

Year	NCA pay bill per head	Police pay bill per head
2021-22	61,136	71,704
2020-21	62,184	72,942
2019-20	60,377	69,826
2018-19	57,384	65,064
2017-18	56,645	63.058
2016-17	55,225	61,051
2015-16	54,636	57,477

Table 80: NCA and Police pay range maxima

NCA Grade	NCA Maximum	Police Maximum prior to 2023 increase	Difference	Number of pay police pay points
Grade 1	£85,788	£93,651	£7,863	3
Grade 2	£70,403	£84,783	£14,380	4
Grade 3	£58,004	£59,064	£1,060	4
Grade 4	£46,812	£48,129	£1,317	4
Grade 5	£39,648	£43,032	£3,384	8

Table 81: Pay comparison between NCA and Civil Service average

Grade	NCA Minima	NCA Maxima	MCA Median	Civil Service Minima	Civil Service Maxima	Civil Service Median
NCA Grade 1 / G6	£70,179	£85,788	£72,485	£56,007	£94,170	£67,267
NCA Grade 2 / G7	£57,640	£70,403	£62,890	£44,353	£85,213	£55,093
NCA Grade 3 / SEO	£47,380	£58,004	£47,380	£33,736	£58,635	£40,923
NCA Grade 4 / HEO	£38,642	£46,812	£42,109	£26,897	£51,113	£33,801
NCA Grade 5 / EO	£30,740	£39,648	£36,037	£23,094	£40,718	£28,082
NCA Grade 6 / AO	£22,905	£28,904	£22,950	£19,750	£31,645	£23,851
No NCA Equivalent / AA	N/A	N/A	N/A	£18,850	£26,662	£21,466

1. Operational Commands are Investigations, Intelligence, Threat Leadership and the National Economic Crime Centre ↩

2. Grades 1-5 ↩

3. NCA Legal use external services to cover vacancies, the costs for this are not shown in the above table. It is broadly three times more expensive to use external services compared to an NCA lawyer ↩

4. Social workers are included without allowances, due to variance of allowances offered by different organisations. Primary market comparators for Social Workers are the NHS and Local Government. ↩

5. https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/social-worker ↩

6. Officers funded by NCA Margin are either in process of being redeployed or whose costs cannot be attributed to a command budgetary line. The most common scenario is when officers are transitioning into or out of an International Liaison Officer (ILO) role i.e. the officer is an ILO in training or has returned to the UK following an overseas deployment and needs a temporary post while their full time post is determined. ↩

7. Role type is based on the Role Profile of the post. Each post within the NCA’s hierarchy has a Role Profile attached ↩

8. This is direct reporting of the data and is dependent on how officers opted to complete the form. In these cases pay and benefits were a driving factor for leaving the NCA ↩

9. This is direct reporting of the data and is dependent on how officers opted to complete the form. In these cases pay was a driving factor for leaving the NCA ↩