Research and analysis

NCA Evidence to the NCA Remuneration Review Body (NCARRB), 2025 to 2026 (accessible)

Updated 11 June 2025

23 January 2025, Version 3

Executive Summary

The National Crime Agency (NCA), also known as ‘the Agency’, leads the UK’s fight against Serious and Organised Crime (SOC), which threatens our national security, damages our economy, undermines communities and has a visceral impact on the lives of our most vulnerable citizens.

The NCA protects the public by bringing together its unique range of capabilities, skilled people and tradecraft to lead the system in disrupting and bringing to justice SOC criminals who pose the highest risk to the UK.

SOC is increasing in scale in response to a number of drivers, including geopolitical instability, economic challenges and most significantly advances in technology. The NCA needs to constantly adapt to the ever-changing threat posed by the most harmful offending, including child sexual abuse, organised immigration crime, economic and cybercrime, fraud and trafficking of illegal drugs and firearms.

Almost all SOC threats have the following aspects in common: a significant overseas dimension, enabled by technology and, for growing threats such as cyber and fraud, taking place increasingly online. SOC actors are highly capable adversaries.

The NCA plays an essential role within a set of overlapping communities. It is part of the law enforcement community with wider policing, H.M. Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and other executive agencies. It also is part of the National Security Community along with the UK Intelligence Community (UKIC) and Defence. Finally, it is part of the Government strategic community, of the Home Office (HO) family and, constitutionally, within the Civil Service.

As a result, the specialist skills required by the NCA are not unique to the Agency: rather, the police have investigators; several operational agencies have technical operations and human intelligence officers; an increasing number of organisations need financial, cyber and data analysts; child protection officers work in local authorities; and lawyers, Commercial and HR specialists exist in most large organisations.

However, the aspect that makes the NCA unique is the sheer breadth and diversity of skills from which the Agency draws across three primary market sectors (Civil Service, Police / UK Intelligence Community (UKIC) and Private Sector). This breadth of experience enables the Agency to deliver its end-to-end mission and system leadership role. It is therefore important that the NCA can attract, retain and develop its highly skilled workforce.

Whilst the NCA has made significant improvements in its recruitment approach and timeframes, the rigorous vetting requirements for the Agency means that it still takes considerably longer than most organisations to appoint staff. We must continue to attract staff who have the right skills and can pass the highest vetting standards in the UK.

The NCA was initially formed with pay arrangements that must now be refined, in order to underpin our workforce strategy and our future success. The NCA has two pay mechanisms: the National Crime Agency Remuneration Review Body (NCARRB) for powered officers, and the Civil Service Pay Remit for non-powered officers. Formally, the NCARRB does not have the legal remit to provide pay and allowance advice for the entire NCA workforce. In 2022/23 Government agreed that NCARRB recommendations would apply to the whole workforce (Grades 1-6).^{[footnote 1]} Since then, NCARRB has been invited by Home Secretaries to make recommendations for the whole force, and have done so. For the 2025/26 pay year, they have been requested to take the same approach, and this was set out in the pay remit letter. Whilst roles within the NCA can be distinct, our workforce strategy depends upon offering a ‘One NCA’ approach to careers and development that encourages movement across the organisation.

In its 2024 report, the NCARRB confirmed that it continues to regard the police service as the primary comparator for the NCA.^{[footnote 2]} NCARRB and NCA both agree on the need for modernisation of NCA’s pay structures and underlying employment framework and NCA has submitted proposals for reform that are being considered by Government. These reforms will not be covered in this evidence which is focused on the level of pay uplift for 2025/26 that is affordable and appropriate for NCA.

In conjunction with pay reform, then, the key pay priority for the NCA in 2025/26 is ensuring that its pay ranges and the pay of its officers do not fall further behind that of the police. The Agency is therefore seeking a consolidated pay uplift for officer pay and the NCA pay maxima in line with the uplift for police. This approach is due to the fact that the Agency faces difficulties recruiting from the police because of their higher salaries. It is also to ensure that the NCA has the agile workforce it requires to identify and dismantle the SOC criminals and networks that cause harm within our communities and institutions, by attracting officers from our law enforcement partners to join the Agency, as well as being an attractive employer for those considering a career in intelligence or law enforcement.

It is worth noting that the NCA is working with Home Office, Counter Terrorism Policing and the National Police Chiefs Counsel to ensure that future NCA reforms complement reforms under development for police arrangements. While there is much to do on the design of the ambition, it may lead to the national and regional parts of the SOC system moving towards greater convergence, which would strengthen the imperative to align pay.

The Agency recognises that pay awards must strike a careful balance in recognising the vital importance of public sector workers, whilst ensuring affordability and delivering value for the taxpayer.

Chapter 1: NCA Context

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

1.1.1 The National Crime Agency’s (NCA) mission is to protect the public from serious and organised crime (SOC). The NCA works with partners across law enforcement, government, industry and beyond to lead the operational response to SOC.

1.1.2 SOC is a threat to the UK’s national security, to its economic prosperity and to the safety of its people. SOC has a pervasive and corrosive impact throughout the UK and on its global interests. The effects of serious and organised crime are felt across the whole population, either directly in the form of violence, fear and other harms (including financial loss and psychological harm), or indirectly in the form of associated criminality, increased strain on public services and the undermining of legitimate businesses. In the 2023/24 period alone, the NCA seized or restrained £230m of criminal assets – an increase of 27% against the three-year baseline.^{[footnote 3]} Additionally, in one case alone the Agency disrupted the world’s most harmful cyber-crime group, responsible for 25% of ransomware attacks in the 2023-24 period that included institutions such as Royal Mail.^{[footnote 4]}

1.1.3 The Agency is a unique organisation at the centre of the UK Intelligence Community (UKIC), policing, His Majesty’s Government (HMG) and international law enforcement, delivering operational impact itself as well as playing an increasingly important role in leading the operational system and providing capabilities and support to others in it.

1.1.4 The Crime and Courts Act 2013 (CCA) sets out the principal functions of the NCA as ‘crime-reduction’ and ‘criminal intelligence’. It identifies the Agency’s primary duties as follows:

• Ensuring that efficient and effective activities to combat organised crime and serious crime are carried out (whether by the NCA, other law enforcement agencies, or other persons); and
• Gathering, storing, processing, analysing and disseminating information that is relevant to activities to combat organised or serious crime; activities to combat any other kind of crime; exploitation proceeds investigations; exploitation proceeds orders and applications for such orders.

1.1.5 The NCA Workforce Evidence for 2024/25 highlighted the NCA’s core key responsibilities as:

• 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 acting against (via criminal justice or otherwise) 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; and
• 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.

1.1.6 Within these statutory requirements, the NCA has several key responsibilities:

• Running investigations through their entire lifecycle, from proactive subject identification, to intelligence development and, ultimately, to arrest or alternative disruption; and
• Working alongside policing and the UKIC in the National Security landscape: like the intelligence community, the NCA houses intelligence capabilities, builds proactive intelligence packages against the highest- harm offenders both in the UK and internationally and, like policing, it undertakes an operational response to criminality, arresting criminals.

This combination makes the NCA unique in its breadth, scope and reach.

1.1.7 The National Strategic Assessment was published in August 2024, and highlights how the changing threat, rapidly evolving technology, and the global context mean that the NCA’s mission to protect the public is more challenging than it was ten years ago.

1.1.8 The SOC threat is almost certainly increasing and becoming more harmful. This continues a long-term global trend in SOC, driven by people living more online, global insecurities, and increasing interconnectivity. Technological change is making offending significantly easier for organised crime groups, allowing them to quickly diversify, collaborate, and reach a global pool of victims, while providing anonymity and security which requires enhanced capabilities and skills within NCA to continue to respond effectively.

1.1.9 The exploitation of the vulnerable by SOC nominals can be seen predominantly across the threats posed by child sexual abuse (CSA), organised immigration crime (OIC), and modern slavery and human trafficking (MSHT). An estimated 710,000-840,000 UK-based adults pose varying degrees of risk to children, equal to 1.3-1.6% of the adult population.^{[footnote 5]} Volumes of indecent images of children (IIOC) remained high in 2023 and 2024 and are expected to remain so in 2025. On the clear web, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) have reported that 275,293 webpages were confirmed to contain IIOC in 2023. Additionally, there will almost certainly be continued rapid growth in the volume of AI-generated Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) shared across both the clear and dark web within the next 12 months and beyond.

1.1.10 In terms of OIC, there were 36,704 irregular arrivals to the UK in 2023. Evidence suggests that Organised Crime Group (OCG) capability and intent in the OIC arena remain high. In 2024 so far, 75 migrants (including 13 children) have been recorded dead or missing after attempting to cross the Channel to the UK by irregular means.^{[footnote 6]} Small boats are highly likely to remain the dominant method of irregular migration into the UK over the next 18 months, as long as OCGs maintain capacity and irregular migrant demand remains high. Debt bondage is commonly used to pay for the crossing, which puts migrants at risk of becoming victims of modern slavery. In 2023, 8,377 referrals were made for MSHT exploitation solely in the UK, an increase of 4.6% from 2022.

1.1.11 The Home Secretary has asked the Agency to play a key role in delivering the Government’s foundational pledge to secure the UK’s borders and dismantle the criminal gangs that coordinate the flow of small boats crossing the channel. To support the new Border Security Command, the Agency will offer scaled options in order to tackle people-smuggling at every stage of the journey, build its intelligence effort with international law enforcement partners, reduce the availability of small boats equipment, and degrade the ability of organised crime groups to advertise their services.

1.1.12 Communities across the UK continue to be harmed by drugs and firearms. In the UK, there were a total of 3,618 drug misuse-related deaths in England and Wales in 2023^{[footnote 7]} – the highest since records began. In 2023/24, NCA activity contributed to the seizure of over 200 tonnes of Class A drugs in the UK and internationally.^{[footnote 8]} Despite the significant volumes seized, the threat to the UK from illicit drugs has continued to increase as global drugs markets expand.

1.1.13 Firearms crime is currently lower than the long-term trend, and remains suppressed; however, criminal intent to source and use firearms remains unchanged. There were 6,268 offences involving firearms recorded in England and Wales in the year ending March 2024 (a 6% increase compared to the year before)^{[footnote 9]}, driven by an increase in offences involving imitation firearms. Discharges involving lethal-barrelled and unknown firearms continue to decrease, with 692 incidents recorded in England and Wales in the year ending March 2024 (a 15% decrease compared to the year before).^{[footnote 10]}

1.1.14 The Agency continues to deliver the NCA Strategy 2023-28, in order to meet Government priorities to protect the public from SOC, and equip the NCA with the tools, capability and workforce that it requires. The Strategy focuses on the following four priorities:

• Degrade the most harmful organised crime groups;
• Lead the UK’s operational response;
• Transform the NCA’s capabilities;
• Build a highly skilled workforce.

1.1.15 The following operational case studies illustrate the breadth, complexity and specialist nature of the NCA’s operations against SOC. Each required officers to deploy a wide range of specialist skills, tactics and knowledge across multiple jurisdictions and with multiple partners.

Figure 1: Case Study 1 - Organised Immigration Crime

Migrant smuggling gang dismantled as head of Teesside-based crime group gets 20- year jail term

In September 2024, the figurehead of an OCG that attempted to smuggle migrants into the UK was jailed for 20 years following an NCA investigation. They coordinated at least five conspiracies to smuggle Iraqi-Kurdish and Vietnamese migrants from France, Belgium and the Netherlands in 2017, and investigators believe they are likely to have successfully smuggled hundreds of others into the UK illegally prior to these attempts. Leading members of the OCG were arrested during a major law enforcement operation across the North East of England in 2018. The operation comprised of around 350 officers from the NCA and its partners, including the North East Regional Organised Crime Unit and Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria police forces.

NCA leads blitz on people smugglers’ social media accounts

The NCA has led a significant increase in the number of takedowns of social media posts, pages and accounts advertising the services of people smugglers, thanks to a partnership with four major social media companies. By the end of November 2024, almost 14,000 of these had been removed, disrupting the organised criminal networks using social media to advertise their services and recruit migrants.

In April 2024 three UK-based individuals suspected of using social media to promote illegal immigration were arrested by the NCA. The Vietnamese nationals were suspected of advertising crossings on social media. They were later charged and appeared in court in August 2024. In May 2024, an Iraqi national who was arrested for the same reason was charged, and appeared in court in September of the same year.

UK law enforcement works with Bulgarian authorities to stop hundreds of boats and engines destined for people smugglers

An NCA-led law enforcement partnership with the Bulgarian authorities has prevented hundreds of boat engines and other pieces of maritime equipment reaching the hands of people smugglers. Between September 2023 and September 2024, the NCA, alongside the Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), worked closely with the Bulgarian National Customs Agency and Bulgarian Border Police, sharing intelligence and mounting joint operations targeting the criminal supply chain.

As a result, 33 separate interceptions of maritime equipment intended for criminal gangs organising channel crossings were made. NCA experts assess that the seizures will have denied the crime networks around £16.6 million in profit that they would have made from crossings using this equipment.

Figure 2: Case Study 2 – Cybercrime

Evil Corp cyber criminals exposed, one unmasked as LockBit affiliate

Sixteen individuals who were part of Evil Corp, once assessed to be the most significant cybercrime threat in the world, were sanctioned in the UK and their links to the Russian state and other prolific ransomware groups – including LockBit – were exposed.

An extensive investigation by the NCA mapped the history and reach of Evil Corp’s criminality – from a family-centred financial crime group in Moscow that branched out into cybercrime, to extorting at least $300 million from global victims including those within healthcare, critical national infrastructure and government. In 2019, this investigation contributed to the US indictment and sanctioning of the head of Evil Corp, Maksim Yakubets, and one of the group’s administrators, Igor Turashev. In October 2024, Yakubets, Turashev and seven of those sanctioned in the US in 2019 were also designated in the UK by the FCDO, along with an additional seven individuals. This included Aleksandr Ryzhenkov - Yakubets’ right-hand man, and with whom he worked closely to develop some of the group’s most prolific ransomware strains. Ryzhenkov has also been identified as a LockBit affiliate as part of Operation Cronos – the ongoing

NCA-led international disruption of the group. Analysis of data obtained from the group’s own systems found he had been involved in Lockbit ransomware attacks against numerous organisations.

Suspected head of prolific cybercrime groups arrested and extradited

An NCA-led international operation resulted in the arrest and extradition of a man believed to be one of the world’s most prolific cybercrime actors. Since 2015, officers from the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) had been investigating the online moniker ‘J.P. Morgan’ and his criminal networks, with parallel investigations run by the United States Secret Service (USSS) and Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). NCCU officers were able to identify the real-world individuals responsible for several high- profile online pseudonyms, including ‘J.P. Morgan’ (a Belarusian male, Maksim Silnikau, also known as Maksym Silnikov). A multi-agency day of action saw the arrest of Silnikau in Estepona, Spain in 2023, and he was extradited from Poland to the US for cybercrime offences in August 2024.

‘J.P. Morgan’s’ crimes include the introduction of ‘Reveton’, the first ever ransomware- as-a-service business model. Victims of Reveton received messages purporting to be from law enforcement, with a notification that would lock their screen and system, accusing them of downloading illegal content such as child abuse material. Victims were coerced into paying large fines through fear of imprisonment or to regain access to their devices. The network also developed and distributed a number of exploit kits - including ‘Angler’ – which involved uploading adverts laced with the malicious exploit kit onto genuine websites in order to deliver malware. The group pioneered both the exploit kit and ransomware-as-a-service models, making it easier for low skilled offenders to become involved in cybercrime.

NCA shuts down major fraud platform responsible for 1.8 million scam calls

In March 2024, following months of intelligence gathering and investigative work, the NCA shut down a platform used by hundreds of criminals to defraud victims globally. A number of individuals have been arrested by the NCA and released on conditional bail, two of whom are believed to have been involved in the creation and development of the platform. Russian Coms., established in 2021, is thought to be behind financial losses in the tens of millions, with an estimated 170,000 people across the UK believed to be victims. The platform allowed criminals to hide their identity by appearing to call from pre-selected numbers, most commonly of financial institutions, telecommunications companies and law enforcement agencies, enabling them to gain the trust of victims before stealing their money and personal details.

Figure 3: Case Study 3 - Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation

High-ranking Darkweb moderator arrested and sentenced

In October 2024, a high-ranking moderator on a Darkweb site discussing child sexual abuse was sentenced to ten years in prison. He will also have an extended licence period of seven years and a lifetime Sexual Harm Prevention Order. He used the dark web to give advice to others on how they could groom children with the intention of sexually abusing them. NCA investigators recovered files from his devices which indicated he had acted as a moderator on at least one child abuse site, and had created his own site focussing on images of children. More than 2,000 indecent images were found.

Operation Stovewood

Operation Stovewood commenced in 2014, and continues to investigate allegations of abuse in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. It is the single largest investigation of its kind in the UK, with 38 people convicted and jailed for a total of over 400 years so far. More than 50 active NCA investigations remain ongoing.

In September 2024, seven men were jailed for a total of 106 years for multiple child sex offences against two teenage girls in the early 2000s. The victims were aged between 11 and 16 at the time of the offences, and both in care. One man was sentenced to 21 years for 17 sexual offences against two young girls 16 years ago, and another was convicted for subjecting a young girl to years of sustained sexual abuse 17 years ago. To support the victim’s testimony, NCA digital forensic specialists trawled through a large quantity of files on the offender’s seized computer to recover images of the victim. Another child sex offender, who had been on the run for five years, was jailed for eight years after he was caught by the NCA and international police.

Figure 4: Case Study 4 – Firearms

Trio sentenced for gun hiding plot in attempt to reduce crime group head’s prison sentence.

In October 2024, three men were sentenced after an NCA investigation uncovered a plot to acquire firearms and ammunition to help the head of an OCG receive a reduced prison sentence.

Whilst on remand for drug trafficking offences in 2019, Thomas Kavanagh requested that accomplices Shaun Kent and Liam Byrne purchase firearms and ammunition and bury them, so that he could reveal their whereabouts to NCA investigators and receive a discount to any sentence he was likely to receive. The scheme was uncovered following the takedown of the encrypted communication platform, Encrochat – NCA officers were able to use the Encrochat messages to evidence the conspiracy.

Kent was arrested, charged with a number of offences and remanded into custody in 2021. Kavanagh was arrested in HMP Norwich in August 2021. He and Kent were charged with firearms offences and perverting the course of justice in August 2023. Byrne was arrested in June 2023 in Mallorca, escorted back to the UK by NCA officers, charged with firearms offences and remanded into custody. All three men admitted the offences; Kavanagh was sentenced to a further prison sentence of six years (served consecutively), Kent received six years in prison and Byrne five years.

1.2 Background to the NCA

1.2.1 The NCA was formed in October 2013 by the Crime and Courts Act. It is a non- ministerial Civil Service department, operationally independent and accountable to Parliament through the Home Secretary.

1.2.2 The formation of the NCA brought together a number of existing bodies:

• Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA);
• Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP);
• Police Central E-Crime Unit;
• Crime and Financial Investigation capability from UK Borders Agency; and
• a small group from the National Fraud Authority, together with the transfer of some NFA functions.

1.2.3 The main precursor for the NCA was SOCA, which, operationally, was predominately made up of former police officers. In order to minimise disruption during the transition phase to the NCA, SOCA’s delegated grading structure (Grades 1-6) was adopted. In broad terms, the equivalent roles are:

• NCA Grade 6: support/trainee officers;
• NCA Grade 5: fully qualified officers
• NCA Grades 4 & 3: middle managers
• NCA Grades 2 & 1: senior managers

Grades are determined by a bespoke job evaluation scheme, which was assumed from SOCA under the transition programme. The current NCA grading structure also maps to the standard Civil Service grading structure (with the exception of AA grades, which the Agency does not utilise). The NCA grading structure from Grade 1 - Grade 5 also broadly mirrors that of policing, with the major exception that the NCA does not use the Inspector grade:

NCA Grade	Police Rank
Grade 1	Chief Superintendent
Grade 2	Superintendent
Grade 3	Chief Inspector
Grade 4	Sergeant
Grade 5	Constable

1.2.4 In 2023 the NCA workforce totalled 5973, this has increased to 6264 through 2024. The Government announced funding for an additional 100 specialist investigators to tackle organised immigration crime in September 2024. Table I: Workforce by Command shows the breadth of Commands in the NCA, and their size relative to the overall workforce^{[footnote 11]}:

Table I: Workforce by Command, including secondments, attachments, contingent labour and other temporary workers

Workforce by Command	Headcount	% of Workforce
NCA Corporate Business Services	220	3.5%
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	284	4.5%
NCA Human Resources	318	5.1%
NCA Integrated Protective Security	241	3.8%
NCA Intelligence	2088	33.3%
NCA Investigations	1792	28.6%
NCA Legal	71	1.1%
NCA Margin	41	0.7%
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	345	5.5%
NCA Strategy	281	4.5%
NCA Threat Leadership	475	7.6%
NCA Transformation Directorate	108	1.7%
Grand Total	6264	100.0%

Chapter 2: The NCA’s Approach to Pay

2.1 Powered and Non-Powered Officers

2.1.1 Section 14 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 enables the Home Secretary to establish and maintain procedures that determine the rates of pay and allowances for the NCA. In 2013, the NCARRB was established under this section to provide independent advice to the Home Secretary on pay and allowances for powered NCA officers.

2.1.2 Formally, the NCARRB does not have the legal remit to provide pay and allowance advice for the entire NCA workforce. Pay for non-powered officers is covered by the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance. However, by convention the NCARRB have provided pay and allowance advice for the entire NCA workforce (Grades 1-6) since 2022. For the 2025/26 pay year, we have requested that NCARRB take the same approach, and this was set out in the pay remit letter from the Home Secretary.

2.1.3 Of the total NCA workforce for 2024 (6264 officers), 35% are powered. However, a large number of NCA operational staff are not required to hold powers: for example, the split in the Investigations Commands is 70% powered / 30% non-powered officers.^{[footnote 12]}

2.1.4 The Crime and Courts Act 2013 does not exclude non-powered officers from undertaking operational work – for instance, both the Agency’s Technical Operations (Tech Ops) and Human Intelligence (HUMINT) teams are made up of an almost equal split of powered and non-powered officers. As a result, the NCA’s workforce strategy relies on a high degree of movement between roles. This approach enables the NCA to develop a multi-skilled workforce, which can respond to emerging threats in an agile manner and is key to the delivery of the Agency’s strategic and operational priorities. It also supports officers’ career development by facilitating movement between Operational and Enabling Capabilities.

2.1.5 As a result of this model, the majority of Commands (both Operational and Enabling Capabilities) contain both powered and non-powered officers, between which work and functions are shared. Consequently, the NCA requires equal treatment of both powered and non-powered officers, to support the existence of unified teams.

2.1.6 In addition, the NCA contains many critical functions that are not directly operational but are, nonetheless, essential to the disruption of organised crime: for example, researching and producing threat assessments. Furthermore, Investigations Teams in operational situations will often be working alongside a number of non-powered officers who will deploy with them: for example, Digital Forensics officers or Child Protection Advisors. These non-powered officers undertake both an equivalent risk of harm and disruption of daily life due to their deployment obligations.

2.1.7 NCA teams often consist of a blend of officers, with backgrounds in the Civil Service, police, intelligence community or private sector. Due to pay differences in the respective markets, their pay may vary significantly when securing a role in the NCA. This has created a pay imbalance within the NCA, with experienced NCA officers remaining on the grade minimum whilst some newly recruited candidates join higher up in the pay range. This can create morale issues for NCA officers who don’t have any form of pay progression and, as a result, adversely impacts staff retention.

2.1.8 New entrants to the Civil Service for NCA roles advertised on the standard pay range will start on the base of grade, unless in exceptional circumstances where an evidence-based business case is reviewed and agreed by the Higher Salary Panel. This panel is chaired by the Head of Pay and Reward. No new entrant will be paid more than the band maximum.

2.1.9 The NCA is currently working closely with the Home Office to support the review of the Crime and Courts Act 2013. This work will include opportunities for codifying NCARRB’s responsibilities for the whole workforce.

2.2 Designation of Powers

2.2.1 The NCA has a specific operating procedure that states how powers can be designated (HR01 OP12: Designation and Use of Powers). In line with the statutory requirements of the CCA 2013, only NCA’s Director General (DG) or a senior NCA officer, not below the grade of Deputy Director (DD), may designate NCA officers with powers. Officers must complete adequate training in respect of the exercise of those powers in order to receive them.

2.2.2 It is an officer’s responsibility to ensure that they remain ‘in ticket’. Officers are required to keep their knowledge and skills up to date, including mandatory refresher training, in order to remain ‘in ticket’. If officers are ‘out of ticket’ then they can no longer be deployed on operations.

2.2.3 If an officer requires powers for their role, then these cannot be relinquished. If powers are not required for a role, then officers can request de-designation with the support of their line management. Additionally, when an individual leaves the Agency (through career break, retirement, resignation or any other reason resulting in termination of contract) they will automatically be considered de-designated.

2.3 Introduction of Spot Rate Roles

2.3.1 The NCA reward strategy does not seek to completely replicate police pay. However, the Agency must be able to support the retention of its specialist officers through matching pay for comparable roles; this approach minimises the risk of NCA officers moving to join the police.

2.3.2 More critically, NCA pay arrangements are not attractive enough for the Agency to recruit serving police officers at an early or mid-stage of their career. The lack of pay progression at the NCA, coupled with its lower pay range, means that the NCA is overly reliant on recruitment of retired police officers who are able to top up their NCA salary with their police pension.

2.3.3 There are inherent differences between the status of police and NCA officers, as a result of the latter’s Civil Servant designation. Additionally, police officers are covered by police regulations, whereas NCA officers are employed on Civil Service terms and conditions. However, all NCA officers are subject to Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) oversight and NCA regulations.

2.3.4 Police officers receive annual pay progression within their pay ranges, as well as the annual headline pay awards recommended by the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB): for example, new constables are placed on a 7-point pay scale, and reach the top point in six years, whilst other ranks reach the top of their pay band maxima in three years. In addition, NCA median pay is lower at each grade than its police equivalent. The difference in approach to the NCA means that the Agency’s pay scales are now misaligned to the police comparators with which they were originally established to maintain pace. This gap is widening year on year, as a result of which NCA has fallen further behind, despite NCA receiving a slightly higher percentage award in 2024/25 (0.25%).

2.3.5 The NCA pays a pensionable London Weighting Allowance for officers working at London locations, which is currently set at £4,040pa. In contrast, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) pays both non-pensionable and pensionable London Allowances that total in excess of £8,000pa.^{[footnote 13]}

2.3.6 The 2017 Pay Flexibility Case, which was accepted by Ministers, consequently set out the difficulties in both attracting and retaining resource from police partners. As a result, the NCA introduced Spot Rate pay for its most critical operational roles. As well as our core investigators, these included analysts, firearms officers, cyber specialists and financial investigators.

2.3.7 Specific roles from Grade 1 to Grade 5 can attract a Spot Rate. There are two levels for Spot Rated roles at Grades 1, 2 and 3: a lower Spot Rate (SR1) and a higher Spot Rate (SR2). For Grade 4 officers in Spot Rated roles, there are two main Spot Rates. However, officers from the NCA Armed Operations Unit (AOU) at this grade can also receive a third, higher, Spot Rate. At Grade 5, there are three main Spot Rate levels, with a higher, fourth rate available to officers in the AOU.

2.3.8 Spot Rate levels are fixed below the NCA pay range maxima.^{[footnote 14]} Additionally, they sit significantly below the police maxima, which are higher than those of the NCA. As such, while they prevented the gap from being wider than it would otherwise have been, current NCA Spot Rate arrangements are still not sufficiently attractive to recruit serving police officers into the Agency. For example, a move between the police to the NCA would result in a reduction of several thousand pounds in pay: at Constable, Sergeant and Chief Inspector grades the difference between NCA Spot Rate and the police maxima is circa £5,000, £3,000 and £7,000 respectively. Additionally, the Agency needs to attract and retain skilled analysts: Recruitment and retention levels for this type of role are amongst the lowest in NCA, and neither our standard pay or Spot Rate arrangements are sufficient to improve this.

2.3.9 In order to move through the Spot Rate levels within each grade, officers must evidence the required operational and occupational competencies that are set out in the skills matrix. In addition to receiving a salary uplift, officers that take up Spot Rate are required to move from a 37-hour to a 40-hour working week (excluding breaks). In comparison, the police work a standard 36.25-hour week (excluding breaks). A significant benefit of the move to a 40- hour week for the NCA is a reduction on the reliance on discretionary overtime. In addition, managers can roster based on guaranteed working hours.

2.3.10 Over 2000 posts are categorised as both operational and on the Spot Rate Framework. Since implementation, 3366 Grade 1-5 officers have elected to move to the new Spot Rate Framework, an increase of 57 since last year.^{[footnote 15]}

2.4 The non-consolidated pay pot

2.4.1 The NCA also maintains a non-consolidated pot of funding, in order to support performance and retention of its officers. Recruitment and Retention Allowances (RRAs) take up a significant percentage of this funding (£1.66 million), in order to target roles that are either difficult to fill or carry significant retention risks. This year, the Agency is not asking for a change in this funding.

2.4.2 The NCA assesses the eligibility of RRA roles rigorously via an annual process that is based on objective evidence. However, the budget covers a large number of officers that, consequently, receive relatively small payments: for example, the average payment is £1900. As such, the budget is arguably ineffective, as average payment levels are very low and are therefore insufficient to support the necessary recruitment and retention.

Indeed, some roles that attract an RRA experience greater turnover than the NCA average of 7.5% as outlined in paragraph 3.3.2.

2.5 The 2024 NCA Pay Settlement

2.5.1 The 2024 pay settlement for the NCA resulted in a 5% uplift to NCA standard and spot rate pay ranges and consolidated pay. In addition, Location Allowances increased by 5%. This mirrored the uplift recommended in the Civil Service Pay Remit and was 0.25% higher than the pay award for policing (4.75%).

Chapter 3: Recruitment, Retention and Pay Comparisons

3.1 Recruitment needs

3.1.1 The NCA is a complex organisation and requires a wide range of skillsets and specialisms to fulfil its mission; the NCA therefore needs to attract candidates from a more diverse set of labour markets. Since 2022 across the entire workforce, the NCA recruit 25% from policing, 24% from the private sector and 28% from the Civil Service. In Enabling Capabilities we see a much higher proportion (40%) from the Civil Service, and in operational roles 29% join from policing. Our skillsets range from investigation roles where our direct comparator is 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 Our officers move between operational and Enabling Capabilities Commands, with key operational skills consistently required within our enabling services. It is crucial that the NCA’s future pay arrangements support the recruitment and retention of a very broad range of skills against a wide range of competitors, each of which price labour differently.

3.1.3 Although the private sector is a large recruitment market, the range of markets, companies and sectors the 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 the NCA recruits from but reliance on skills only readily available in the private sector is a major feature of the NCA. This is due to the number of technical and specialist roles required including forensic scientists, occupational psychologists, and cyber security experts, where the skillsets required are rare and niche.

3.1.4 The price of labour is much higher for most roles above Grade 4 in the private sector and police than the Civil Service, and consequently it is more difficult for the NCA to recruit from these sectors. The wider Civil Service is not as exposed to policing as the NCA. 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 the NCA.

3.1.5 The NCA also has a need for enabling capabilities roles such as HR, Finance, Commercial, Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT), Legal and Estates. The NCA is at considerable risk of losing officers to Civil Service departments in these areas, even though our pay scales are often higher, as it will face issues with the payment of Recruitment and Retention payments of up to £15k, or will see roles graded higher in comparison to the Agency.

3.2 Macroeconomic context

3.2.1 The rate of UK economic growth since the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008 has been substantially lower than in previous decades. Annual real productivity growth (GDP per hour worked) fell by around 1.5 percentage points, from an average of 2.1% in the decade prior to the GFC, to 0.6% between 2010 and 2019. Higher productivity enables higher wages and living standards. Only sustained productivity growth over the medium-term can deliver sustainable long-run economic growth and real-terms wage rises.

3.2.2 The government is fixing the foundations of the economy and beginning a decade of national renewal. Through the growth mission, the government is restoring stability, increasing investment, and reforming the economy to drive up prosperity and living standards across the UK.

3.2.3 The UK economy has faced unprecedented shocks, including the pandemic and Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, which contributed to the largest increase in inflation in almost 50 years. Low and stable price inflation is an essential element of a stable macroeconomic environment, and a pre- requisite for sustainable economic growth and improving living standards. Inflation is normalising after these shocks and is expected to remain close to the 2% target throughout the OBR’s forecast period, and average 2.6% across 2025/26.

3.2.4 The UK economy is exposed to risks from geopolitical tensions, shifts in global trade, global spillovers from declining demand in China, and any sudden increases in financial market volatility which could tighten financial conditions. Overall, risks are elevated and skewed to the downside.

3.3 Labour market context^{[footnote 16]}

3.3.1 Settlement data are the most comparable data to PRB decisions, as they are a direct measure of consolidated pay awards, and are not directly affected by other factors such as changes to working hours or changes in the composition of employment. According to Brightmine, median settlements across the economy were at 4.8% in 2024 Q2 and 4.0% in 2024 Q3. The OBR’s forecast is for average earnings growth to average 4.5% across 2024/25 – this measure of average earnings growth has historically been higher than average pay settlements, as it is affected by compositional changes in the labour force and factors such as changes to working hours. Against both of these, the 2024/25 award for the NCA ahead of the wider economy, which should support an improvement in recruitment and retention.

3.3.2 Average earnings growth is forecast to moderate further over the coming months, with the OBR expecting earnings growth to fall to 3% in 2025/26. Survey evidence also points to an easing in wage growth, with Brightmine’s survey showing that settlements are expected to average 3% in 2025. The Government has brought forward the pay round this year, which makes it particularly important that PRBs consider forecasts for wage growth.

3.3.3 While the unemployment rate is low by historical standards, there is substantial uncertainty around the position of the labour market due to ongoing issues with the Labour Force Survey. Other sources suggest that the labour market continues to loosen, with vacancy levels falling, and employee numbers falling in recent months. A loosening labour market should continue to support recruitment and retention across the public sector.

3.4 Current labour market conditions

3.4.1 As a result of the declining UK job market, the Chartered Instituted of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has dubbed this most recent economic period as the ‘Big Stay’, with more professionals opting for job security over pay (77%).^{[footnote 17]} The CIPD have anticipated that both staff turnover and vacancies are likely to decline this year (2024), in a period of ‘normalisation’ following the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, more than half (55%) of employers are currently looking to maintain their current staff level, the highest proportion in seven years, with employers in the public sector the least likely to increase staff levels.^{[footnote 18]} Whilst it is true that overall turnover in the NCA has reduced from 8.8% to 7.5% as of December 2024 in line with this stagnation of the labour market, acute difficulties remain in recruiting and retaining our specialist and technical roles.

3.4.2 The changing threat and rapidly evolving technology involved in SOC presents an increased challenge to public protection. Whilst the specialist skills required for this work are not unique, in order to function effectively the Agency must pull together a multitude of skills across three primary market sectors (Police / UKIC, Private Sector and Public Sector including regulatory bodies). As such, the NCA’s requirements range from operational officers with a law enforcement background, to officers with digital and cyber skills to fight online crime and social workers to protect vulnerable individuals.

3.4.3 All of these skills come at a premium, and it is a challenge for the Agency to recruit officers with them as our salaries do not compare favourably to those offered by the private sector, regulators, policing or the intelligence agencies. Our pension arrangements are a helpful benefit, but the difference in salary still prevents us recruiting from these organisations where either the pension arrangements are similar, or with the private sector the difference in salary outweighs any advantages from our pension scheme. Additionally, the Agency still faces challenges within the Civil Service, as in some cases higher specialist allowances are offered in other government departments (OGDs).

3.5 Comparisons of pay in the NCA and competitors

3.5.1 The differences between NCA and police pay have been an issue for a number of years. Table II shows that the gap between the NCA and Police pay ranges has been growing since the NCA was formed in 2013. In 2014, the police had an on-average £8k higher salary than the Agency (median pay) – as of 2023 this has now grown to almost a £30k difference at the NCA Grade 1/Chief Superintendent rank as shown in Table 75 of Annex A^{[footnote 19]}:

Table II: NCA vs Police Pay Ranges

2014:

Grade	NCA Pay Max	Police Pay Max	Difference
G1 (CS G6)	£80,883	£83,094	-£2,211
G2 (CS G7)	£66,025	£75,066	-£9,041
G3 (CS SEO)	£54,050	£55,005	-£955
G4 (CS HEO)	£43,240	£41,865	£1,375
G5 (CS EO)	£36,321	£37,254	-£933

2024:

Grade	NCA Pay Max	Police Pay Max	Difference
G1 (CS G6)	£96,384	£111,117	-£14,733
G2 (CS G7)	£79,099	£95,025	-£15,926
G3 (CS SEO	£65,169	£70,200	-£5,031
G4 (CS HEO)	£52,594	£53,943	-£1,349
G5 (CS EO)	£44,546	£48,231	-£3,685

3.5.2 The difference in pay has grown over the last decade as a result of pay progression within police forces, a process which is not mirrored within the NCA.

3.5.3 The Agency has seen pay rises over the past three years of 5%, 7% and 5% overall: this is in line with police colleagues in terms of percentage increases, however the nature of their higher existing salaries, coupled with progression, means that policing continues to move away from the NCA.

3.5.4 Last year, the NCA received an award that was 0.25% higher than policing colleagues. This has not reduced the gap between the two organisations. Rather, comparatively higher police pay maxima mean that, even with a higher NCA award, the difference at the upper pay range (and at the pay median) persists. Table III below shows that Agency salaries only caught up to the police at two grades (Grades 3 and 4), and only by £79 and £60:

Table III: NCA vs Police Pay Maxima

NCA Grade	NCA Maximum	Police Maximum	Difference	Number of police pay points	Difference between 2023 and 2024
Grade 1	£96,384	£111,117	£14,733	3	-£3,285
Grade 2	£79,099	£95,025	£15,926	4	-£541
Grade 3	£65,169	£70,200	£5,031	4	£79
Grade 4	£52,594	£53,943	£1,349	3	£60
Grade 5	£44,546	£48,231	£3,685	7	-£65

3.5.5 The principles of the Agency’s proposed Pay and Contract Reform aim to reduce the gap between NCA and police pay. Whilst it is acknowledged that the Agency will not be able to match private sector pay, a considerable amount of work has been undertaken to ensure that our wider benefits provide a comparable offer to candidates. Non-pay benefits have been enhanced over the last few years, to include offers such as the buying and selling of annual leave, the implementation of reward vouchers and the increasing access to discount schemes. This work has been initially seen positively by our officers, although further analysis is required to understand the overall impact. Although considerable work has been done to reduce the gap, there are areas the Agency still remains significantly behind the private sector. These often include subsidised health insurance, car leasing schemes and, in some cases, relocation expenses for new joiners, which the Agency does not offer.

3.5.6 With regards to Civil Service comparators, NCA median salaries are generally higher on a grade by grade basis. However, the NCA loses more officers than it gains to the wider Civil Service, and NCA business areas report that much of this attrition is due to the wider Civil Service offering roles at a higher grade than NCA is able to due to our rigorous grading standards. In addition, case studies presented in this evidence show that the NCA also faces issues with some roles across the wider Civil Service which attract large Recruitment and Retention Payments – up to circa £15k in Digital roles or roles which fall within the Government Commercial framework. Separately, we have seen the advertising of roles at higher grades than the Agency, particularly in more specialist roles.

Grade	NCA Minima	NCA Maxima	NCA Median	Civil Service Minima	Civil Service Maxima	Civil Service Median
NCA Grade 1 / G6	£75,092	£91,794	£77,559	£57,362	£95,689	£69,453
NCA Grade 2 / G7	£61,675	£75,332	£61,675	£46,000	£76,766	£55,543
NCA Grade 3 / SEO	£50,697	£62,065	£50,697	£36,515	£64,860	£42,001
NCA Grade 4 / HEO	£41,347	£50,089	£45,057	£30,000	£45,000	£34,623
NCA Grade 5 / EO	£32,892	£42,424	£38,560	£23,500	£35,936	£28,136
NCA Grade 6 / AO	£24,557	£30,928	£24,557	£21,000	£33,000	£24,138
No NCA Equivalent / AA	N/A	N/A	N/A	£20,049	£28,446	£22,136

3.6 Recruitment and Retention

3.6.1 As outlined at paragraph 3.1.1, turnover has reduced in the Agency over the last year. However, the Agency continues to experience significant turnover within both specialist roles required to protect the public and those that provide an enabling function. In some instances, RRAs are used to target these roles to which it is hard to recruit or have associated retention risks.

3.6.2 Table V below demonstrates business areas that are in receipt of RRAs. These are low-value payments, with an average payment of £1,900 pa. However, even with this additional remuneration, total turnover in some areas remains unsustainable, and in all areas in receipt of RRA is higher than the NCA average of 7.5% as of December 2024. Additionally, the turnover rate is currently being masked by the productivity created through the use of overtime (which makes up 5% of the Agency’s pay bill) and all types of Contingent Labour and professional services (which is 27% of the pay bill).

Table V: Turnover within Teams in Receipt of RRA

Category (RRA Team)	Total Turnover[footnote 20]
Corporate Business Services – Commercial	34.94%
Intelligence – Biometrics	34.48%
Intelligence - Technical Operations (OCAD/Eng.)	23.42%
National Economic Crime Centre - Operations DAML	20.55%
Corporate Business Services - Finance SMEs	14.51%
Investigations – Armed Operations Unit	14.49%
Intelligence - Covert Support	14.43%
Intelligence - UKPPS Covert Finance	13.35%
Investigations – Forensics	12.57%
Integrated Protective Security - Vetting Officer	12.04%
Threat Leadership – Operations	11.11%
Investigations - Child Protection	10.67%
Threat Leadership – Technology	10.41%
National Economic Crime Centre - Operations International	10.41%

3.6.3 For a number of these roles, pay is a primary factor driving turnover. For example, the Agency’s Technical Operations (Tech Ops) team regularly experiences an annual turnover of over 23%. Whilst the Agency will pay Tech Ops officers on average £43k, plus an up to £2k RRA and London Weighting, our comparators within the MPS will pay approximately £67k plus allowances for the same role. This is mirrored within Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs), where officers in similar roles will be paid £55k plus allowances. Over the past five years, Tech Ops has dropped from approximately 145 to 94 officers. This has created a rapidly aging workforce in the Tech Ops team which, if left unresolved, will cause significant challenges in the NCA in the coming years.

3.6.4 Turnover naturally decreases productivity within a team, both through the loss of resource and the time required to recruit and train a new member of staff. Due to the specialist nature of its workforce, the NCA’s recruitment and enhanced vetting processes can take up to 12 months, with the average time to hire being 9 months. Coupled with the time required for new starters to develop NCA specific skills, it can take up to 2 years for staff to be recruited and become proficient in the role.

3.6.5 The NCA is working hard to transform its recruitment and vetting, however security remains paramount and it cannot relax restrictions or vetting processes. The NCA has a programme of activity to optimise the recruitment process and candidate experience. Measures include holding assessment centres where interviews, substance testing, some vetting checks and Occupational Health assessments are all undertaken in one day – reducing timeframes by 10 weeks on previous processes.

3.6.6 In light of the specialist skills required to undertake a number of Agency roles, this level of turnover represents a significant loss to the NCA. As such, it is, in part, the reason for the use of Contingent Labour in backfilling some vacancies. Table VI below demonstrates that areas with a higher than average turnover rate also have the largest Contingent Labour spend (Corporate Business Services; Digital, Data and Technology; and Transformation):

Table VI: Contingent Labour Spend vs Turnover by Command

Command	Total Contingent Labour Spend in 2023/24 (£m)[footnote 21]	Turnover during 2024
NCA Corporate Business Services	2.71	13.19%
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	2.70	9.17%
NCA Human Resources	0.05	3.27%
NCA Intelligence	1.35	6.44%
NCA Investigations	1.02	6.73%
NCA Integrated Protective Security	0.10	3.84%
Suspicious Activity Reporting (SARS)	0.20	N/A
NCA Strategy & Change	0.28	6.93%
NCA Threat Leadership	0.85	7.63%
NCA Transformation Directorate	2.27	15.31%
Total	11.53	6.92%

3.6.7 A recent example of the need for Contingent Labour is the ongoing activity to support the Child Sexual Exploitation Referrals Bureau (CSERB), which processes referrals from Electronic Service providers such as Meta, X, Snapchat and other social media companies. Due to a significant increase in referrals to CSERB, the business area has had to bolster numbers to try to reduce the backlog at pace. CSERB have therefore recruited 15 surge officers on top of their normal establishment, and have successfully applied for funding for a further 23 Contingent Labour. Additionally, they have trained a cadre of 168 officers who rotate into the team both daily and on overtime to help deal with the demand.

3.6.8 However, the team are currently having to work seven days a week with significant overtime costs to support this key operational activity. Attrition in the team is also high due to the nature of the role, and the team also faces significant retention challenges: officers with the required skillset will move to comparators in order to receive both higher salaries and the chance not to work with CSA material.

3.6.9 We also face issues in other specialist teams, such as our Digital Forensics team. Recruitment has been a longstanding issue for the team, as they struggle to attract suitably skilled, experienced and qualified officers to Grade 5 posts. This creates difficulties for the team in attending all crime scenes, leading to lost investigative opportunities and creating a backlog. Additionally, a number of officers have been required to ‘firefight’ as a result of the significant shortfalls in numbers; this has resulted in the deskilling of some officers, due to a requirement to complete lower-grade work in order to maintain operational activity, negatively affecting the morale of the Digital Forensics team. The use of Contingent Labour is therefore required in supporting roles, in order to reduce the burden on the wider forensics department. In addition, officers are choosing to leave the team to move to opportunities externally, including private industry and policing.

3.6.10 The current use of RRAs and Contingent Labour within the Agency is not sustainable. Lower levels of attrition and turnover will reduce the need for overtime payments and Contingent Labour, as demonstrated in 2021 where an almost 10% reduction in overtime was achieved due to the Covid-related decrease in attrition: more FTE was available, and therefore resources could be utilised more efficiently. The Agency’s proposed Pay and Contract Reforms will therefore be necessary to reduce attrition and turnover, particularly in specialist business areas.

3.6.11 Additionally, the NCA funds RRAs via its non-consolidated pay pot. This approach puts a strain on other payments made through the non-consolidated pot: for example, the NCA makes an annual award of circa £400 to those that receive an ‘Exceeded’ end-of-year rating. In comparison, this payment averages out at around £1,200pa in the wider Civil Service.^{[footnote 22]} The NCA focused on introducing Spot Rate rather than expanding RRA payments, so this issue is exacerbated by the relative size of the Agency’s non-consolidated pot – currently capped at 1% pa, compared to the Civil Service average of 2% (the highest being 7%).

3.6.12 The Agency has seen a steady increase in pay-related grievances between the period of March 2022 to August 2024. In 2022, there were four formal grievances submitted, which increased to six in 2023. For 2024, ten grievances have been submitted so far. The proportion of collective grievances has increased, with officers submitting grievances by both team and business area.

3.6.13 Whilst the full details of these grievances cannot be reported here, these cases encompass the entire pay framework: pay progression, Spot Rate and RRAs are a considerable focus, as well as higher pay on appointment. It is therefore evident that the increasing number of grievances each year creates a significant risk for the Agency – including a potential significant equal pay risk.

3.7 Market Comparators

3.7.1 Over the past 12 months we have continued to monitor the wider market for technical roles across the Civil Service and Local Government. Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) specialisms in these sectors are offering salaries and allowances that dwarf the Agency’s offer. This is particularly evident at senior grades, where candidates at Grades 1 and 2 are offered market allowances of up to £15k.

3.7.2 Additionally, the NCA offer for social workers is considerably weaker than that of Local Government: the latter offer higher base salaries as well as pay progression, market supplements of 10-15%, and welcome bonuses of £2k. Social workers in Local Government also receive relocation expenses, which puts their total offer at £52k for a new starter compared to the NCA offer of £40k. The Agency has had to use contingent labour to fill the vacancies within its child protection teams, with the costs of this being upwards of £70k for each contingent labour officer per annum.

3.8 Location Allowances

3.8.1 The NCA currently offers two location allowances to its officers: the London Weighting Allowance (LWA) and the South East Allowance (SEA). As of 1 August 2024, the LWA is £4,040pa and the SEA is £3,232pa. In comparison to our powered officers, the MPS pays both pensionable and non-pensionable London Allowances that total in excess of £8,000pa^{[footnote 23]}, in addition to free Transport for London (TfL) services for officers. Tables 85-87 in the Annexes provide a breakdown of the allowances provided by the NCA, compared to those offered by the MPS and the wider Civil Service.

3.9 Building Capability

3.9.1 The NCA continues to improve its internal training and development programmes, which enable officers to join at a more junior grades and progress through the NCA. This mitigates some of the impact caused by both retirement and recruitment delays.

3.9.2 The NCA continues to offer the Officer Development Programme (ODP), for officers to gain accreditation in specific disciplines in either the Intelligence or Investigations Profession. Both internal and external campaigns have been run, in order to attract external talent and develop those already within the Agency. All officers undertake a generic, four-month training programme, during which they learn the fundamentals of operational law enforcement. At the end of the four months, officers are assessed and undertake specific training relating to their role. Following successful completion, officers achieve a nationally recognised qualification relevant to their role.

3.9.3 The NCA also continues to deliver the Management Development Programme (MDP), its flagship development programme for officers at Grades 1-5 with line management responsibilities. The MDP delivers a series of one day, practical workshops with casework examples to ensure that its managers are equipped to carry out their duties effectively. The MDP supports NCA managers to lead by example, and embed the core values and behaviours expected of its officers. In addition, all new starters attend the NCA Onboarding programme, which includes a session on management and leadership expectations for all new starters (regardless of whether they are assuming a management role).

3.10 Culture in the NCA

3.10.1 Building an inclusive workplace culture impacts on all officers’ wellbeing, productivity and the reputation of the Agency. A healthy culture is key to the NCA’s success and essential to secure the trust of our officers and the public. Priority Four of the NCA Strategy emphasises our commitment to establishing a more diverse workforce and inclusive culture. To do this successfully, the NCA needs to continue to develop a culture which attracts and retains a high performing workforce who feel they belong at the NCA, are safe and respected, and are valued for what they do and who they are.

3.10.2 Building a strong culture within the NCA will assist in easing the current recruitment and retention issues within the Agency. As such, in the past three years the NCA has launched several initiatives to improve our culture and ways of working, including:

• The new NCA’s Values, which were launched in May 2024 after extensive consultation and involvement of officers across the Agency. The new values are:
  • Integrity – we do the right thing and act with courage – for our people and for the public we serve,
  • Agility – we are flexible and innovative to stay ahead of the threat,
  • Alliance – we embrace diversity, collaborating with teams and partners, and
  • Excellence – we aspire to be world class in protecting the public from serious and organised crime;
• The identification of six cultural shifts of Collaboration, Recognition, Innovation, Empowerment, Diversity and Identity, which will ensure that we can build a positive culture that supports the NCA and our people;
• The continued rollout of the Allyship programme, which is designed to equip and encourage officers to actively support and stand up for others, especially those from non-dominant groups;
• The delivery of our EMPOWER Talent Programme, a 12-month structured development programme for officers from an ethnic minority background at Grades 3-6;
• The continuation of work with the Chairs of Staff Groups to make incremental changes in the Agency and to ensure that they are involved in the implementation to secure success, following recent achievements such as spot-mentoring schemes and educational events focusing on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG);
• The response to the recommendations from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) report, including a revised Discipline and Misconduct policy and the launch of a new Confidential Reporting Tool to enable users to anonymously submit reports independently and privately;
• The Agency’s enrolment into the ‘HeforShe’ movement^{[footnote 24]}, initiated by the United Nations to tackle Gender Inequality and Misogyny, addressing the gender imbalance in operational roles and senior management teams; and addressing sexism and misogyny where it exists in the NCA culture;
• The introduction of a Reward Voucher Scheme to recognise positive contributions and behaviours;
• The development of the Female Senior Leadership Development Programme (FSLDP), aimed at officers G2 and above who identify as female with inspirational speakers from across all sectors.
• The development and introduction of ‘Stay Interviews’, aimed at officers who may be thinking of leaving the NCA or are in highly skilled/critical roles; and
• The launch of ‘Green Dot’ training, a short course followed by an active organisational campaign aimed to empower officers to tackle inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, challenge everyday ‘isms’, and foster respect, openness and psychological safety in the workplace.

3.10.3 In addition, work is planned to:

• Publish the Gender Pay Gap report, where analysis for 2023-24 shows a slight increase to the mean gender pay gap of 1.71%. The median gender pay gap has continued to decrease – by 0.02% over the same period. Further analysis is ongoing to determine the specific reasons for the mean increase, and an action plan will set out the Agency’s response;
• Produce the Agency’s first, internal Ethnicity Pay Gap report, which will act as the baseline for future monitoring and reporting; and
• Develop a new Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination (BHD) Strategy to tackle BHD across the NCA and reduce workplace conflict. This is a priority to help with retention as well as officers’ wellbeing and morale.

Chapter 4: Pay Proposition for the NCA for 2025/26

4.1 The case for NCA officers (both powered and non-powered) to receive a headline pay award award in line with the police award fro 2025/26

4.1.1 As outlined in Chapter 3, NCA pay is behind police pay at every grade. This gap has been increasing since the formation of the Agency in 2013. Table VII below outlines the growing gap between NCA and police pay in the last ten years:

Table VII: Gap Between NCA and Police Pay 2014-2024

2014:

	NCA Pay Max	Police Pay Max	Difference
G1 (CS G6)	£80,883	£83,094	-£2,211
G2 (CS G7)	£66,025	£75,066	-£9,041
G3 (CS SEO)	£54,050	£55,005	-£955
G4 (CS HEO)	£43,240	£41,865	£1,375
G5 (CS EI)	£36,321	£37,254	-£933

2024:

	NCA Pay Max	Police Pay Max	Difference
G1 (CS G6)	£96,384	£111,117	-£14,733
G2 (CS G7)	£79,099	£95,025	-£15,926
G3 (CS SEO)	£65,169	£70,200	-£5,031
G4 (CS HEO)	£52,594	£53,943	-£1,349
G5 (CS EI)	£44,546	£48,231	-£3,685

4.1.2 Unlike the NCA, law enforcement workforce groups in the public sector benefit from pay progression in addition to their annual pay uplifts. This group includes:

• Police;
• Police staff;
• British Transport Police;
• MoD Police; and
• Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

4.1.3 The lack of pay progression at the NCA means that 68% of officers on standard pay ranges are at or near the minima of their pay range. The inverse is true of the police, where less than 20% of all officers are on the minimum and are able to move up quickly to the maximum.

4.1.4 Many operational roles in the NCA benefit from our Spot Rate arrangements. This approach provides these officers with slightly higher pay and longer working week than those in non-operational roles on standard pay arrangements; however, the Spot Rates are set at a comparatively low level to police pay for the same grade. The difference between NCA Spot Rates and median police pay is set out below in Table VIII, which also highlights that even the higher Agency Spot Rates are significantly behind the median pay for the grade in policing:

Table VIII: NCA Median Spot Rate vs Police Median Pay

NCA Grade	NCA Median Spot Rate	Police Median	Difference
Grade 1	£87,868	£111,117	-£23,249
Grade 2	£76,214	£89,208	-£12,994
Grade 3	£53,232	£64,527	-£11,295
Grade 4	£51,238	£53,943	-£2,705
Grade 5	£43,046	£48,231	-£5,185

4.1.5 In addition, police pay ranges are fairly short, with officers taking between three and six years to reach their pay band maxima.

4.1.6 One consequence of this disparity is that the NCA experiences great difficulty in recruiting serving police officers at working age, as officers are required to take a pay cut to join the NCA.

4.1.7 Police officers are also aware that they would quickly reach the police maxima for their grade if they remain in force (4.1.5), so are unwilling to leave to join an organisation where their pay would not progress.

4.1.8 The NCA also has difficulties with retaining officers either with technical skills or that work in specialist enabling functions. Many NCA officers who work in technical roles or specialist enabling functions in the NCA are highly marketable in the Civil Service, UK Intelligence Community and Private Sector. Additionally, Civil Service employers do not have to maintain a link between their grading levels and those in the police, and as such have more flexibility to offer roles at a higher grade. Consequently, OGDs are able to attract NCA officers by offering roles at a higher grade: 65% of NCA officers who have left Enabling Capabilities have moved to OGDs on promotion, and 20% of these were double promotions. The average percentage pay uplift that NCA officers receive on promotion is 14%, which is unusual given the policy is normally grade minimum or 10%. This figure increases when looking at specialisms, with DDaT and Legal specialists receiving 22% and 25% uplifts respectively.

4.1.9 The NCA is therefore required to use expensive solutions to adjust to the difficulties caused by its pay arrangements. These solutions include the use of Professional Services, which cost the Agency approximately £77.53m in 2023/24, a proportion of which is as a consequence of recruitment and retention.

4.1.10 NCA is at the forefront of delivering Government priorities, including increasing its operational impact on People Smuggling – especially via Small Boats operations. The additional staff required are substantially those in operational roles. As a result of the Agency’s current pay offer, growth in these areas risks being slow. Recommendation 1 will therefore enable the NCA to better deliver priorities.

4.1.11 RECOMMENDATION 1: Over time it will be more cost efficient to increase NCA pay range maxima (and raise its pay range minima). Therefore, the NCA recommends an annual uplift for both officers and Spot Rate pay levels in line with the pay award for policing. This is necessary, in part, to improve the shortfall in officer pay at each grade compared to policing colleagues, due to the lack of pay progression in the NCA.

Table IX: Uplift to NCA Pay Minima and Maxima

NCA Grade	NCA Minimum	NCA Maximum	Pay Range Length
Grade 1	£78,847	£96,384	22%
Grade 2	£64,759	£79,099	22%
Grade 3	£53,232	£65,169	22%
Grade 4	£43,415	£52,594	21%
Grade 5	£34,537	£44,546	29%
Grade 6	£25,785	£32,475	26%

4.1.12 RECOMMENDATION 2: That the NCA’s Location Allowances are increased by a higher level than pay, to reduce the gap with the location payments offered to police and particularly the Metropolitan Police Service.

4.1.13 Every year, the Agency increases its basic pay and location allowances by the same percentage. The cost of increasing our basic pay and location allowances by 1% next year is £1.699m, which includes Employer’s National Insurance (NI) and superannuation. Additionally, Table X highlights the cost of increasing Basic Pay and Location Allowances by 2.9% as an example:

Table X: 2.9% Increase to NCA Basic Pay and Location Allowances

NCA Pay Award Costs (Basic Pay and Location Allowances)
2.9%	£ 4.93m

4.2 Funding in 2024/25

4.2.1 In the financial year 2024/25, the NCA budgeted for a 5% pay award effective from 01 August 2024.

4.2.2 This budget comprised £7.7m VOTE and a further £2.3m Externally Funded. The total cost is c£10m for 2024/25. The pay award of 5% was considered necessary to attract, recruit and retain staff thereby maintaining the operational effectiveness of the Agency. Cost reduction measures are being put in place to meet higher costs which have risen due to inflation which has been significantly higher than the SR funding increases of 3% per annum in recent years. The cost reduction measures include efficiency targets which have been included in Director budgets in order to fund the NCA’s priorities as approved and incorporated in the annual business plan.

4.3 Affordability

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. The NCA has budgeted for a 2.9% pay award effective from 1 August 2025.

4.3.2 Previously in this chapter we have set out the economic and NCA financial landscape for 2025-26 which builds on the challenging position following recent pay rounds.

4.3.3 In recent years, the financial landscape has changed, including inflation rising substantially higher than anticipated (as detailed at 3.2.1). These pressures have led to re-prioritisation of budgets and challenging efficiency and cashable savings targets, even prior to the submission of this evidence and subsequent decisions on the pay award. The pay award should be considered in this context. The NCA continues to seek further baselining of external funds.

4.3.4 If further reprioritisation were also required, this would impact the NCA priorities set by Government. These priorities include degrading the most harmful organised crime groups that pose a threat to the UK, and leading the national operational response to serious and organised crime in the UK.

4.3.5 Alleviating recruitment and retention concerns is a strategic priority for the NCA as these issues lead to additional costs. These costs include repeated expensive recruitment exercises, the use of overtime and reliance on expensive contingent labour to cover vacancies, as well as lowering capability and disrupting ongoing activity and investigations.

4.4 Pensions

4.4.1 The NCA contributes 28.97% towards officers being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension Scheme. The pension scheme arrangement provides officers with financial security and options when they retire as well as benefits for family members and loved ones, including tax relief on contributions, options to increase pensions, life insurance cover and the option of tax-free lump sum on retirement. This is a very generous pension arrangement compared to the private sector and will be more attractive for officers recruited from this sector. Officers who are active police pension members immediately prior to joining the NCA can continue their membership throughout their NCA employment.

4.5 Northern Ireland Transitional Allowance

4.5.1 Recommendation Four of the Tenth NCARRB report, published in July 2024, requested that the NCA review the allowances of NCA officers in Northern Ireland with a view to those officers who are subject to similar risks to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers receiving the same allowance as PSNI officers.

4.5.2 The NCA have acted on the recommendation and undertook a study including comprehensive research with comparator organisations. The conclusions are that there is not a justification for introducing or increasing an allowance. The study itself is classified, but NCARRB will be briefed on the details in a private session.

Chapter 5: The NCA’s Long Term Plan for Reform of its Pay and Employment Framework

5.1 Reform of Pay and Employment Framework

5.1.1 The NCA’s workforce is critical to its success; however, the underlying governance structures have not been reviewed since the Agency’s formation in 2013. This has resulted in inconsistencies in how pay and workforce matters are controlled, as the NCA is covered by both the annual Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance and the NCARRB.

5.1.2 Recent NCARRB reports have referenced the need for the NCA to submit a case for multi-year transformational reform in 2024. This is required in order to address the workforce and pay issues that have been previously highlighted. The NCA recognises the need for reform, and shares the NCARRB’s desire to address this in order to resolve the following challenges:

• Difficulties with recruitment and retention in our ‘hard to fill’ roles;
• Tensions in our industrial relations following previous years of Pay Award delays (although it has been acknowledged that the 2024/25 Pay Award was made on time), and low employee motivation and engagement;
• Legal risks associated with equal pay claims (which are estimated to be a risk of over £200 million);
• A lack of workforce agility and subsequent movement between roles; and
• A lack of pay parity with both policing and UKIC.

5.1.3 The NCA developed a pay and contract reform proposal last year and submitted it to HM Treasury and Cabinet Office. If the proposals are supported by central Government, the Agency’s intention will be to implement the reforms via collective agreement. This is because the changes and savings will be contingent on contractual reform and, where we are proposing to reform terms and conditions such as overtime, on-call payments or hours worked, this will need to be agreed via a negotiated outcome. As a result, the NCA will need to secure a majority agreement on the reforms via collective bargaining.

Annex A: supporting data

1. The NCA Workforce at 31 August 2024

1.1 The Workforce

1.1.1 At 31 August 2024, the NCA had a workforce of 6,264 officers, comprising a mixture 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^{[footnote 25]}

Workforce by Employment Status	Headcount
Agency Staff	~
Attached Staff	57
Career Break	47
Commercial Contractor (Contingent Labour)	120
External Staff Loaned In (Costing)	35
External Staff Loaned In (Not Costing)	~
Fixed Term Contract	83
NCA Staff Loaned Out	15
Outsourced Contractor (Professional Fees)	47
Perm Staff Attached Out	~
Perm Staff Seconded Out	~
Permanent Staff	5744
Seconded Officer Costing	96
Seconded Officer Non-Costing	~
Student Placement	~
Grand Total	6264

Table 3: Workforce by Command

Workforce by Command	Headcount
NCA Corporate Business Services	220
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	284
NCA Human Resources	318
NCA Integrated Protective Security	241
NCA Intelligence	2088
NCA Investigations	1792
NCA Legal	71
NCA Margin[footnote 26]	41
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	345
NCA Strategy	281
NCA Threat Leadership	475
NCA Transformation Directorate	108
Grand Total	6264

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.

1.1.3 The NCA is tackling increasingly complex operational demands which requires national and international multi-agency and whole of system collaboration. Our G1 and G2 officers are a key hinge between the strategic and tactical and are an important outward facing layer of the Agency. They also ensure our people and functions are effectively led, maintaining appropriate spans of control to support oversight, communication and management. This change to the workforce composition has been necessary to ensure we have the depth of experience in our leadership to meet operational goals effectively.

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	£81,437	£87,868	–	–
Grade 2	£70,658	£76,214	–	–
Grade 3	£53,232	£57,165	–	–
Grade 4	£47,310	£51,238	–	£53,284
Grade 5	£38,955	£40,488 (Developing 2)	£43,046	£44,751

Table 5: NCA Standard Pay Range Framework

Grade	Minimum	Maximum
Grade 1	£78,847	£96,384
Grade 2	£64,759	£79,099
Grade 3	£53,232	£65,169
Grade 4	£43,415	£52,594
Grade 5	£34,537	£44,546
Grade 6	£25,785

1.3 NCA Workforce - Powers

1.3.1 Table 6 provides an overview of powered vs. non-powered officers. Most powered officers are in Commands which are primarily operational, although there are some powered officers in enabling functions that are able to support operations where surge capacity is required.

Table 6: Powers by Command^{[footnote 27]}

Workforce by Command	Powers	No Powers
NCA Corporate Business Services	2.27%	97.73%
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	8.10%	91.90%
NCA Human Resources	7.86%	92.14%
NCA Integrated Protective Security	29.05%	70.95%
NCA Intelligence	29.12%	70.88%
NCA Investigations	69.59%	30.41%
NCA Legal	0.00%	100.00%
NCA Margin[footnote 28]	12.20%	87.80%
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	12.17%	87.83%
NCA Strategy	8.90%	91.10%
NCA Threat Leadership	28.63%	71.37%
NCA Transformation Directorate	2.78%	97.22%
Grand Total	34.95%	65.05%

Table 7: Powers by Command by percentage

Workforce by Command	Powers	No Powers
NCA Corporate Business Services	2.27%	97.73%
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	8.10%	91.90%
NCA Human Resources	7.86%	92.14%
NCA Integrated Protective Security	29.05%	70.95%
NCA Intelligence	29.12%	70.88%
NCA Investigations	69.59%	30.41%
NCA Legal	0.00%	100.00%
NCA Margin	12.20%	87.80%
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	12.17%	87.83%
NCA Strategy	8.90%	91.10%
NCA Threat Leadership	28.63%	71.37%
NCA Transformation Directorate	2.78%	97.22%
Grand Total	34.95%	65.05%

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

Table 8: Powers by Grade^{[footnote 29]}

Workforce by Grade	Powers	No Powers	Headcount
NCA Grade 1	40	106	146
NCA Grade 2	129	320	449
NCA Grade 3	376	722	1098
NCA Grade 4	667	1195	1862
NCA Grade 5	971	1477	2448
NCA Grade 6	~	~	~
Grand Total	2189	4075	6264

Table 9: Powers by Working Pattern

Workforce by Work Pattern	Powers	No Powers
Full Time	32.42%	57.63%
Part Time	2.52%	7.42%
Grand Total	34.95%	65.05%

Table 10: Powers by Gender

Workforce by Gender	Powers	No Powers
Female	11.35%	35.48%
Male	23.62%	29.55%
Grand Total	34.97%	65.03%

Table 11: Powers by Role Type

Workforce by Role Type[footnote 30]	Powers	No Powers
Enabling Function	3.18%	29.29%
Operational	31.77%	35.76%
Grand Total	34.95%	65.05%

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 within the Agency is improving, and the NCA 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	Total
16 – 19	0.06%
20 – 29	13.53%
30 – 39	26.14%
40 – 49	24.15%
50 – 59	27.45%
60 – 64	6.96%
65 & over	1.62%
Not Declared	0.10%
Grand Total	100.00%

Table 13: Workforce by Gender

Workforce by Gender	Total
Female	46.83%
Male	53.17%
Grand Total	100.00%

Table 14: Workforce by Ethnicity

Workforce by Ethnicity	Total
Ethnic Minority / Other	10.68%
Not Declared	9.55%
Prefer not to say	3.59%
White	76.18%
Grand Total	100.00%

Table 15: Workforce by Religion/Faith

Workforce by Religion/Faith	Total
No Religion	38.65%
Christian	36.38%
Not Declared	13.15%
Prefer not to say	5.68%
Muslim	2.39%
Hindu	1.15%
Sikh	0.94%
Any other religion	0.85%
Jewish	0.27%
Buddhist	0.24%
Atheist	0.21%
Agnostic	0.05%
Humanist	0.02%
Pelagianism	0.02%
Grand Total	100.00%

Table 16: Workforce by Disability Declaration

Workforce by Disability Declaration	Total
Disabled	5.60%
Not Declared	68.87%
Not Disabled	25.53%
Grand Total	100.00%

Table 17: Workforce by Sexual Orientation

Workforce by Sexual Orientation	Total
Heterosexual/Straight	77.78%
LGBT	4.18%
Not Declared	11.35%
Prefer not to say	6.69%
Grand Total	100.00%

2.3 Commands

2.3.1 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 Capabilities teams.

Table 18: Workforce by Working Pattern^{[footnote 31]}

Workforce by Command - Working Pattern	Full Time	Part Time	Total
NCA Corporate Business Services	191	29	220
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	257	27	284
NCA Human Resources	263	55	318
NCA Integrated Protective Security	221	20	241
NCA Intelligence	1898	190	2088
NCA Investigations	1606	186	1792
NCA Legal	~	~	~
NCA Margin	~	~	~
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	315	30	345
NCA Strategy	253	28	281
NCA Threat Leadership	436	39	475
NCA Transformation Directorate	~	~	~
Grand Total	5641	623	6264

Table 19: Workforce by Gender^{[footnote 32]}

Workforce by Command - Gender	Female	Male	Total
NCA Corporate Business Services	125	95	220
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	129	155	284
NCA Human Resources	208	110	318
NCA Integrated Protective Security	122	119	241
NCA Intelligence	950	1138	2088
NCA Investigations	716	1076	1792
NCA Legal	49	22	71
NCA Margin	18	23	41
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	182	163	345
NCA Strategy	161	120	281
NCA Threat Leadership	220	255	475
NCA Transformation Directorate	54	54	108
Grand Total	2934	3330	6264

2.3.2 Table 20 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 – with between 3.19-4.71% of the NCA workforce in each Command.

Table 20: Workforce by Role Type

Workforce by Command - Role Type	Enabling Functions	Operational	Total
NCA Corporate Business Services	3.51%	0.00%	3.51%
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	3.51%	1.02%	4.53%
NCA Human Resources	5.08%	0.00%	5.08%
NCA Integrated Protective Security	2.38%	1.47%	3.85%
NCA Intelligence	4.71%	28.62%	33.33%
NCA Investigations	3.19%	25.42%	28.61%
NCA Legal	1.13%	0.00%	1.13%
NCA Margin	0.42%	0.24%	0.65%
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	1.68%	3.83%	5.51%
NCA Strategy	2.73%	1.76%	4.49%
NCA Threat Leadership	2.49%	5.09%	7.58%
NCA Transformation Directorate	1.64%	0.08%	1.72%
Grand Total	32.47%	67.53%	100.00%

Table 21: Workforce by Gender and Role Type

Workforce by Gender - Role Type	Enabling Functions	Operational	Total
Female	19.48%	27.36%	3.51%
Male	12.99%	40.17%	4.53%
Grand Total	32.47%	67.53%	100.00%

Table 22: Workforce by Command, Gender and Role Type

Workforce by Command, Gender and Role Type	Gender	Enabling Functions	Operational	Total
NCA Corporate Business Services	Female	2.00%	0.00%	2.00%
	Male	1.52%	0.00%	1.52%
NCA Corporate Business Services Total		3.51%	0.00%	3.51%
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	Female	1.63%	0.43%	2.06%
	Male	1.88%	0.59%	2.47%
NCA Digital, Data and Technology Total		3.51%	1.02%	4.53%
NCA Human Resources	Female	3.32%	0.00%	3.32%
	Male	1.76%	0.00%	1.76%
NCA Human Resources Total		5.08%	0.00%	5.08%
NCA Integrated Protective Security	Female	1.36%	0.59%	1.95%
	Male	1.02%	0.88%	1.90%
NCA Integrated Protective Security Total		2.38%	1.47%	3.85%
NCA Intelligence	Female	2.67%	12.50%	15.17%
	Male	2.04%	16.12%	18.17%
NCA Intelligence Total		4.71%	28.62%	33.33%
NCA Investigations	Female	2.27%	9.16%	11.43%
	Male	0.93%	16.25%	17.18%
NCA Investigations Total		3.19%	25.42%	28.61%
NCA Legal	Female	0.78%	0.00%	0.78%
	Male	0.35%	0.00%	0.35%
NCA Legal Total		1.13%	0.00%	1.13%
NCA Margin	Female	0.27%	0.02%	0.29%
	Male	0.14%	0.22%	0.37%
NCA Margin Total		0.42%	0.24%	0.65%
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	Female	1.04%	1.87%	2.91%
	Male	0.64%	1.96%	2.60%
NCA National Economic Crime Centre Total		1.68%	3.83%	5.51%
NCA Strategy	Female	1.84%	0.73%	2.57%
	Male	0.89%	1.02%	1.92%
NCA Strategy Total		2.73%	1.76%	4.49%
NCA Threat Leadership	Female	1.50%	2.01%	3.51%
	Male	0.99%	3.08%	4.07%
NCA Threat Leadership Total		2.49%	5.09%	7.58%
NCA Transformation Directorate	Female	0.81%	0.05%	0.86%
	Male	0.83%	0.03%	0.86%
NCA Transformation Directorate Total		1.64%	0.08%	1.72%
Grand Total	32.47%	32.47%	67.53%	100.00%

2.4 NCA Grades

2.4.1 The data shows that 9.95% of the workforce are part time with Grades 3, 4 and 5 having higher ratios, of which the highest ratio is at Grade 5.

Table 23: Grade by Working Pattern

Workforce by Grade	Full Time	Part Time	Total
NCA Grade 1	2.23%	0.10%	2.33%
NCA Grade 2	6.77%	0.40%	7.17%
NCA Grade 3	16.25%	1.28%	17.53%
NCA Grade 4	26.74%	2.99%	29.73%
NCA Grade 5	34.72%	4.36%	39.08%
NCA Grade 6	3.34%	0.83%	4.17%
Grand Total	90.05%	9.95%	100.00%

2.4.2 Table 24 shows that there is a higher proportion of females to males at Grade 5 and 6. From Grade 4, the difference shows a higher ratio of males to females, with males more likely to be in a senior role at Grade 1.

Table 24: Grade by Gender

Workforce by Grade	Female	Male	Total
NCA Grade 1	50	96	146
NCA Grade 2	188	261	449
NCA Grade 3	430	668	1098
NCA Grade 4	827	1035	1862
NCA Grade 5	1277	1171	2448
NCA Grade 6	162	99	261
Grand Total	2934	3330	6264

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 that a proportion of our workforce (5.37%) are in spot rate posts, whilst remaining on the Standard Pay framework. Those eligible for spot rate have reduced by 1.14% since last year. 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 2024.

2.5.2 The data in tables 25-31 is based on NCA employees on NCA Terms & Conditions.

Table 25: SR Eligibility by Gender

Eligibility by Grade	Spot Rate Officers	Eligible for Spot Rate	Standard Pay Range	Total
Female	15.78%	2.00%	29.48%	47.27%
Male	23.13%	3.37%	26.23%	52.73%
Grand Total	38.92%	5.37%	55.72%	100.00%

2.5.3 The highest percentage of officers eligible to opt into spot rates are in the higher age brackets, with 50-59-year olds at 2.29%, 40-49-year olds at 1.07%, and 60-64-year olds at 0.97%.

Table 26: SR Eligibility by Age

Workforce by Age Band	Spot Rate Officers	Eligible for Spot Rate	Standard Pay Range	Total
16 – 19	0.00%	0.02%	0.03%	0.05%
20 – 29	5.15%	0.39%	7.69%	13.23%
30 – 39	12.35%	0.36%	13.80%	26.50%
40 – 49	8.55%	1.07%	14.28%	23.90%
50 – 59	9.99%	2.29%	15.19%	27.47%
60 – 64	2.46%	0.97%	3.64%	7.06%
65 & over	0.42%	0.29%	0.91%	1.63%
Not Declared	0.00%	0.00%	0.17%	0.17%
Grand Total	38.92%	5.37%	55.72%	100.00%

Table 27: SR Eligibility by Grade

Eligibility by Grade	Spot Rate Officers	Eligible for Spot Rate	Standard Pay Range	Total
NCA Grade 1	1.10%	0.05%	1.22%	2.37%
NCA Grade 2	2.86%	0.14%	4.22%	7.21%
NCA Grade 3	0.30%	0.29%	16.92%	17.51%
NCA Grade 4	13.18%	1.47%	15.51%	30.16%
NCA Grade 5	21.47%	3.42%	13.99%	38.88%
NCA Grade 6	0.00%	0.00%	3.86%	3.86%
Grand Total	38.92%	5.37%	55.72%	100.00%

Table 28: SR Eligibility by Religion/Faith

Eligibility by Religion/Faith	Spot Rate Officers	Eligible for Spot Rate	Standard Pay Range	Total
No Religion	17.15%	1.44%	20.90%	39.49%
Christian	14.28%	1.78%	21.19%	37.24%
Not Declared	3.86%	1.41%	6.08%	11.35%
Prefer not to say	2.15%	0.49%	3.07%	5.71%
Muslim	0.52%	0.07%	1.81%	2.40%
Hindu	0.15%	0.07%	0.90%	1.12%
Sikh	0.32%	0.02%	0.66%	1.00%
Any other religion	0.27%	0.05%	0.56%	0.88%
Buddhist	0.07%	0.02%	0.17%	0.25%
Jewish	0.07%	0.02%	0.17%	0.25%
Atheist	0.05%	0.02%	0.15%	0.22%
Agnostic	0.02%	0.00%	0.03%	0.05%
Humanist	0.00%	0.00%	0.02%	0.02%
Pelagianism	0.00%	0.00%	0.02%	0.02%
Grand Total	38.92%	5.37%	55.72%	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 (3.95%).

Table 29: SR by Ethnicity

Eligibility by Ethnicity	Spot Rate Officers	Eligible for Spot Rate	Standard Pay Range	Total
EM/Other	2.90%	0.34%	7.54%	10.77%
Not Declared	2.91%	0.83%	3.69%	7.43%
Prefer not to say	1.42%	0.25%	1.91%	3.59%
White	31.69%	3.95%	42.57%	78.20%
Grand Total	38.92%	5.37%	55.72%	100.00%

Table 30: SR by Disability Declaration

Eligibility by Disability Declaration	Spot Rate Officers	Eligible for Spot Rate	Standard Pay Range	Total
Disabled	1.68%	0.37%	3.86%	5.91%
Not Declared	27.47%	3.15%	36.60%	67.21%
Not Disabled	9.77%	1.85%	15.26%	26.88%
Grand Total	38.92%	5.37%	55.72%	100.00%

Table 31: SR Eligibility by Sexual Orientation

Eligibility by Sexual Orientation	Spot Rate Officers	Eligible for Spot Rate	Standard Pay Range	Total
Heterosexual / Straight	31.35%	3.69%	44.56%	79.59%
LGB	1.57%	0.12%	2.52%	4.22%
Not Declared	3.44%	1.13%	4.89%	9.47%
Prefer not to say	2.56%	0.42%	3.74%	6.72%
Grand Total	38.92%	5.37%	55.72%	100.00%

2.6 Terms and Conditions

2.6.1 Currently, three officers remain on pre-cursor terms and conditions. Two officers have assimilated to NCA terms within the last year.

2.6.2 The majority of the workforce (just over 61%) remains on the Standard Pay Range. Just under 39% of our workforce are on spot rates.

Table 32: T&Cs by Gender

T&Cs by Gender	Female	Male	Total
Standard Pay Range	31.48%	29.60%	61.08%
Spot Rate	15.78%	23.13%	38.92%
Grand Total	47.27%	52.73%	100.00%

Table 33: T&Cs by Working Pattern

T&Cs by Working Pattern	5-day Week	Flexible Working	Shift Working	Total
Standard Pay Range	48.60%	11.63%	0.85%	61.08%
Spot Rate	34.63%	4.17%	0.12%	38.92%
Grand Total	83.23%	15.80%	0.97%	100.00%

Table 34: T&Cs by Working Hours

T&Cs by Working Hours	Full Time	Part Time	Total
Standard Pay Range	53.75%	7.33%	61.08%
Spot Rate	36.02%	2.90%	38.92%
Grand Total	89.77%	10.23%	100.00%

2.6.3 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	Powers	No Powers	Total
Standard Pay Range	14.11%	46.98%	61.08%
Spot Rate	22.03%	16.88%	38.92%
Grand Total	36.14%	63.86%	100.00%

Table 36: T&C’s by Age Group

T&Cs by Age Band	Standard Pay Range	Spot Rate	Total
16 – 19	0.05%	0.00%	0.05%
20 – 29	8.08%	5.15%	13.23%
30 – 39	14.16%	12.35%	26.50%
40 – 49	15.34%	8.55%	23.90%
50 – 59	17.48%	9.99%	27.47%
60 – 64	4.61%	2.46%	7.06%
65 & over	1.20%	0.42%	1.63%
Not Declared	0.17%	0.00%	0.17%
Grand Total	61.08%	38.92%	100.00%

Table 37: T&Cs by Ethnicity

T&Cs by Age Band	EM/Other	Not Declared	Prefer not to say	White	Total
Standard Pay Range	7.87%	4.69%	2.17%	46.35%	61.08%
Spot Rate	2.90%	2.91%	1.42%	31.69%	38.92%
Grand Total	10.77%	7.60%	3.59%	78.04%	100.00%

Table 38: T&Cs by Disability Declaration

T&Cs by Disability Declaration	Disabled	Not Declared	Not Disabled	Total
Standard Pay Range	4.23%	39.75%	17.10%	61.08%
Spot Rate	1.68%	27.47%	9.77%	38.92%
Grand Total	5.91%	67.21%	26.88%	100.00%

Table 39: T&Cs by Sexual Orientation

T&Cs by Sexual Orientation	Heterosexual/ Straight	LGBT	Not Declared	Prefer not to say	Total
Standard Pay Range	48.25%	2.64%	6.03%	4.17%	61.08%
Spot Rate	31.35%	1.57%	3.44%	2.56%	38.92%
Grand Total	79.59%	4.22%	9.47%	6.72%	100.00%

3. NCA Officer Development Programme (ODP)

3.1.1 The NCA ODP is a learning pathway for officers to gain accreditation in a specific discipline, either in the Intelligence or Investigations Profession.

3.1.2 The cohort data below shows the number of officers undertaking the programme. The turnover for this group is low, and they represent the future operational workforce of the Agency.

Table 40: ODP Cohorts

Cohort	Start Date	Officer Intake	Number of Leavers	Turnover
Cohort 1	2022 Intake	23	2	9%
Cohort 2	2022 Intake	16	1	6%
Cohort 3	2023 Intake	16	0	0%
Cohort 4	2023 Intake	16	4	25%
Cohort 5	2023 Intake	14	0	0%
Cohort 6	2023 Intake	20	0	0%
Cohort 7	2023 Intake	14	0	0%
Cohort 8	2023 Intake	11	0	0%
Cohort 9	2024 Intake	16	0	0%
Cohort 10	2024 Intake	13	0	0%
Cohort 11	2024 Intake	15	0	0%
Cohort 12	2024 Intake	31	0	0%
Total		205	7	3%

4. NCA Recruitment Activity

4.1 Pipeline Data

4.1.1 During 2024, the NCA has continued to build on the accelerated recruitment pace since the Covid-19 pandemic. Table 41 shows the changes in recruitment activity from 2020-2024. The NCA pipeline is the number of candidates in our recruitment process, with the majority of them being on reserve lists or waiting for a posting.

Table 41: Number of Candidates added to the NCA Pipeline

Month	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Number difference 2023 to 2024	Percentage difference 2023 to 2024
January	213	102	76	71	177	106	149%
February	271	83	86	100	146	46	46%
March	133	96	77	50	186	136	272%
April	249	107	94	106	96	-10	-9%
May	215	109	180	105	119	14	13%
June	229	130	80	95	53	-42	-44%
July	162	143	91	197	112	-85	-43%
August	196	80	90	200
September	229	73	32	226
October	276	80	100	122
November	287	124	109	86
December	40	27	72	81
Total	2500	1154	1087	1439	889	-550	-38%

4.2 Labour Markets

4.2.1 Tables 42-44 show the labour markets from which the NCA recruits, with it being broadly split between Civil Service, Police and the Private Sector (although the Private Sector roles tend to be entry level roles – the service sector and administration). The data covers the period from 2022 to 2024.

Table 42: Percentage of Candidates by Sector

NCA Candidate Source	Percentage Total
Civil Service	28.41%
Police	24.64%
Private	23.91%
Public Sector	7.25%
Education	6.81%
Unemployed	5.80%
Charity	1.59%
Other	1.30%
UKIC	0.14%
Unknown	0.14%

Table 43: Percentage of Candidates for Operational Commands

NCA Candidate Source	Percentage of Candidates
Police	28.94%
Private	24.61%
Civil Service	24.41%
Unemployed	7.09%
Education	6.30%
Public Sector	5.51%
Charity	1.38%
Other	1.38%
UKIC	0.20%
Unknown	0.20%

Table 44: Percentage of Candidates for Enabling Capabilities

NCA Candidate Source	Percentage of Candidates
Civil Service	39.56%
Private	21.98%
Police	12.64%
Public Sector	12.09%
Education	8.24%
Unemployed	2.20%
Charity	2.20%
Other	1.10%

4.3 Operational Pipeline

4.3.1 When looking at the recruitment of operational roles, we can see the challenges the NCA 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.
• 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

Recruitment Campaigns - Offers	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Number Difference	Percentage Difference
Firearms	13	2	2	11	1	-10	-91%
Intelligence Officer/Analyst	242	0	29	44	193	149	339%
Investigations Officer	142	9	75	113	107	-6	-5%
Specialist Intelligence  and Investigations	102	127	48	95	45	-50	-53%
Total	499	138	154	263	346	83	32%

Table 46: Conditional offers by applicant

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%

2023:

Recruitment Campaigns – Applicants & Offers	Number of Applicants	Number of Offers	Percentage Conversion of Applicant to Offer
Firearms	58	11	19%
Intelligence Officer/Analyst	574	44	8%
Investigations Officer	929	113	12%
Specialist Intelligence & Investigations	813	95	12%
Total	2374	263	11%

2024:

Recruitment Campaigns – Applicants & Offers	Number of Applicants	Number of Offers	Percentage Conversion of Applicant to Offer
Firearms	14	1	7%
Intelligence Officer/Analyst	2795	193	7%
Investigations Officer	870	107	12%
Specialist Intelligence & Investigations	826	45	5%
Total	4505	346	8%

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 3366 officers join the spot rate framework.

5.1.2 This increase of officers on spot rates represents an increase in 272.92 FTE for a 37-hour week, or 252.47 for a 40-hour week.

Table 47: Productivity by Grade

Turnover	Increase in Officers since SR Implementation	Increase in Hours	Increase in FTE (37 Hours)	Increase in FTE (40 Hours)
NCA Grade 1	72	216	5.84	5.40
NCA Grade 2	193	579	15.65	14.48
NCA Grade 3	17	51	1.38	1.28
NCA Grade 4	1197	3591	97.05	89.78
NCA Grade 5	1887	5661	153.00	141.53
Total	3366	10098	272.92	252.47

5.2 Wellbeing and sickness

5.2.1 The spot rate framework was introduced in 2018. The tables below outline the percentage of sickness days lost for those on standard terms and conditions versus those on the spot rate framework. Although spot rate officers are working three hours extra a week, the data suggests that their sickness levels are lower than those of officers on the standard pay range.

Table 48: Wellbeing and Sickness by Year

T&C	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024~
Non-Spot Rate	1.63%	1.57%	1.56%	2.25%	1.96%	1.59%
Spot Rate	1.20%	0.97%	1.00%	1.72%	1.69%	1.38%
Total	1.60%	1.53%	1.36%	2.04%	1.86%	1.51%

~ 2024 represent the period Jan 2024 to Aug 2024

6. Leavers – Attrition Rates

6.1.1  Attrition has continued to fluctuate, with the Agency seeing a slight decrease since last year. This seems to be primarily due to reductions in attrition within Intelligence and Investigations, our two biggest Commands. This trend is not unexpected given that the Agency has received two pay awards since last year, coupled with the fact that the wider UK economy is seeing a reduction in attrition (showing that the Agency is consistent with market factors). However, we do still see higher turnover in some Enabling Services and Specialist Roles, as shown in Table 51.

Table 49: Annual Turnover by Grade – August to August

Turnover	Annual Attrition 19/20	Annual Attrition 20/21	Annual Attrition 21/22	Annual Attrition 22/23	Annual Attrition 23/24
NCA Grade 1	21.20%	12.40%	14.50%	11.90%	8.23%
NCA Grade 2	13.10%	11.80%	11.80%	12.00%	6.64%
NCA Grade 3	10.80%	7.30%	9.00%	9.10%	7.24%
NCA Grade 4	7.40%	5.50%	5.90%	7.00%	6.91%
NCA Grade 5	7.50%	7.50%	6.10%	8.90%	6.71%
NCA Grade 6	15.00%	11.30%	14.50%	13.50%	9.12%
Total	9.00%	7.50%	7.40%	8.80%	6.92%

Table 50: Annual Turnover by Command

Command	2023	2024
NCA Corporate Business Services	9.1%	13.19%
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	12.7%	9.17%
NCA Human Resources	7.4%	3.27%
NCA Integrated Protective Security	5.4%	3.84%
NCA Intelligence	6.7%	6.44%
NCA Investigations	9.1%	6.73%
NCA Legal	25.0%	5.27%
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	9.8%	6.60%
NCA Strategy*	11.8% & 19.8%*	6.93%
NCA Threat Leadership	9.8%	7.63%
NCA Transformation Directorate	N/A**	15.31%
Totals	8.8%	6.92%

*The Strategy command were previously the Strategy and Change commands, with Strategy having a turnover of 11.8% and Change of 19.8%

**The Transformation command are a new function created during 2024, therefore we do not have a 2023 turnover figure.

Table 51: Annual Turnover by role with RRA

Category (RRA Team)	Total Turnover (2023)	Total Turnover (2024)
Corporate Business Services – Commercial	12.55%	34.94%
Intelligence – Biometrics	0%	34.48%
Intelligence - Technical Operations (OCAD/Eng.)	5.00%	23.42%
National Economic Crime Centre - Operations DAML	0%	20.55%
Corporate Business Services - Finance SMEs	24.82%	14.51%
Investigations – Armed Operations Unit	3.08%	14.49%
Intelligence - Covert Support	0%	14.43%
Intelligence - UKPPS Covert Finance	3.52%	13.35%
Investigations – Forensics	18.88%	12.57%
Integrated Protective Security - Vetting Officer	N/A	12.04%
Threat Leadership – Operations	N/A	11.11%
Investigations - Child Protection	17.54%	10.67%
Threat Leadership – Technology	5.00%	10.41%
National Economic Crime Centre - Operations International	N/A	10.41%

Table 52: Attrition by Grade – December 2024

Grade	Attrition Rate
Grade 1	9.7%
Grade 2	6.7%
Grade 3	7.9%
Grade 4	7.0%
Grade 5	7.3%
Grade 6	13.3%
Total	7.5%

7. Leavers - Exit Questionnaire

7.1.1 During 2023 the NCA redesigned its exit questionnaire with the aim to streamline in order to improve response rates and provide more valuable data for the Agency. The below tables cover the period from February 2024 to end of November 2024.

7.1.2 The first table shows the top 10 leaving factors for officers, with the top five primarily covering promotion, pay and new opportunities which tend to be linked factors for officers.

Table 53: Top 10 Leaving factors

Leaving Factor	Likert Scale (out of 5)
Career development/promotion	2.85
To gain new opportunities or experiences	2.71
Leadership	2.61
Technology	2.60
Pay and benefits	2.10
Work life balance/workload	2.05
To seek different working conditions	1.97
NCA values not adhered to	1.96
Workplace stress	1.87
Retirement	1.67

7.1.3 If we expand the time frame looking at pay and benefits back to 2021, we can see a gradual improvement in the scores since the pay award pause during 2021. During 2024 we have had two pay awards implemented within 6 months of each other, which we believe is the primary factor in the drastic reduction in pay scores from 2023 to 2024.

Table 54: Pay & Benefits score since 2021

Year	Likert Scale (out of 5)
2021	2.92
2022	2.60
2023	2.50
2024	2.10

7.1.4 If we look at the reasons for joining their new organisation, pay and promotion opportunities are the third and fourth highest reason with the excitement of a new role and L&D opportunities coming out first and second.

Table 55: Top 10 reasons for joining new organisation

What attracted you to that organisation?	Percentage of respondents
The role/responsibilities	12.61%
Learning and Development Opportunities	11.04%
Pay and Wider Benefits	9.23%
Promotion Prospects	8.78%
Equipment or Tools (e.g. Technology)	8.11%
Location	7.88%
Feeling Valued/Recognition	6.98%
Organisational Culture	6.98%
Reputation of Organisation	6.76%
Working Arrangements (e.g. Flexible Working)	6.76%

7.1.5 Over the past two years the Agency has put a considerable effort into expanding our non-pay benefits offer with the introduction of the Edenred discounts platform, buy and sell annual leave scheme, Reward Vouchers as well as Cycle To Work and Technology purchase schemes. It is positive that officers are engaging with this offer, but it is clearly not enough to prevent officers from leaving.

Table 56: Utilisation of Non-Pay Benefits

Did you utilise the NCA Non-Pay Benefits platform?	Percentage of respondents
Yes	64.34%
No	35.66%
I prefer not to say	0.78%

7.1.6 The Agency’s organisational culture is broadly viewed positively, although there are almost 40% of leavers who believe our culture is considered unsatisfactory.

Table 57: NCA Organisational Culture

How would you describe the NCA’s organisational culture?	Score
Excellent	2.29%
Good	12.21%
Fair	26.72%
Satisfactory	17.56%
Unsatisfactory	38.93%
I prefer not to say	2.29%

8. Other pay elements

8.1 Temporary promotion

8.1.1 The tables below represent the grade of the role covered by Temporary Promotion as at 31 August 2023 and 31 August 2024.^{[footnote 32]}

Table 58: Temporary Promotion as at 31 August 2023

Grade	Female	Male
NCA Grade 1	~	21
NCA Grade 2	27	39
NCA Grade 3	78	85
NCA Grade 4	129	116
NCA Grade 5	32	14

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

Table 59: Temporary Promotion as at 31 August 2024

Grade	Female	Male
NCA Grade 1	~	17
NCA Grade 2	43	43
NCA Grade 3	91	109
NCA Grade 4	142	99
NCA Grade 5	25	11

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

8.2 Overtime

8.2.1 As a law enforcement agency, we need to be prepared to react to the changing nature of crime. This includes deploying officers outside of working hours, and going beyond the normal working week. Officers at Grades 3-6 (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.

8.2.2 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); and
• 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).

8.2.3 During 2023-24, the NCA has a current spend level of £14.2m on overtime. The majority of overtime is claimed in operational roles, with Intelligence and Investigations the biggest claimants.

Table 60: Total Overtime Claimed by Command

Command	Total Overtime claimed
NCA Corporate Business Services	£161,109
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	£173,115
NCA Human Resources	£269,298
NCA Integrated Protective Security	£527,194
NCA Intelligence	£4,328,163
NCA Investigations	£7,769,492
NCA Legal	£539
NCA National Economic Crime Centre	£137,027
NCA Strategy & Change	£166,017
NCA Threat Leadership	£608,837
NCA Transformation Directorate	£21,372
Grand Total	£14,162,162

8.2.4 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 aligns with those two grades being the biggest grades in the NCA. Officers at Grade 2 and above do not receive Overtime or On-call within their roles.

Table 61: Total Overtime Claimed by Grade

NCA Grade	Total Overtime claimed
NCA Grade 3	£3,248,271
NCA Grade 4	£5,393,389
NCA Grade 5	£5,461,558
NCA Grade 6	£58,944
Grand Total	£14,162,162

8.2.5 Regarding overtime claims by officers with and without powers, the split favours those with powers. This is to be expected, due to powered officers being required to be deployed regularly.

Table 62: Total Overtime Claimed by Powers

Powers	Grand Total
Powers	66.9%
No Powers	33.1%
Grand Total	100.0%

8.2.6 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 63: Total Overtime Claimed by Gender

Gender	Grand Total
Female	29.6%
Male	70.4%
Grand Total	100.0%

Table 64: Total Overtime Claimed by Ethnicity

Ethnicity	Grand Total
White	79.4%
EM/Other	6.6%
Prefer not to say	4.2%
Not Declared	9.8%
Grand Total	100.0%

Age Group	Grand Total
20 – 29	8.3%
30 – 39	22.2%
40 – 49	26.2%
50 – 59	35.0%
60 – 64	7.0%
65 & over	1.4%
Grand Total	100.0%

Table 66: Overtime Claimed by Working Pattern

Working Pattern	Grand Total
5-day Week	90.1%
Flexible Working	7.2%
Shift Working	2.7%
Grand Total	100.0%

8.3 Contingent Labour

8.3.1 During 2023-24, the Agency spent £11.53m in Contingent Labour costs. The majority of the spend was in DDaT and Corporate Business Services, which are relatively small Commands.

Table 67: Contingent Labour Costs by Command

Command	Total Spend To Date (£m)
NCA Corporate Business Services	2.71
NCA Digital, Data and Technology	2.70
NCA Human Resources	0.05
NCA Intelligence	1.35
NCA Investigations	1.02
NCA Integrated Protective Security	0.10
Suspicious Activity Reporting (SARS)	0.20
NCA Strategy & Change	0.28
NCA Threat Leadership	0.85
NCA Transformation Directorate	2.27
Total	11.53

8.4 People Survey

8.4.1 We are unable to provide the 2024 People Survey, as they are currently under embargo for external publication. However, we have provided the People Survey pay results for 2023.

Table 68: 2023 People Survey Results – Pay

People Survey	Result	Percentage point change
Pay & Benefits	21%	-1%
Overall engagement	57%	-2%
Pay comparison with other organisations	19%	-1%

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 build. The below table shows which spot rate value our officers currently are on, as at 1 August 2024.

Grade	Spot Rate	Number of Officers
NCA Grade 1	SRG1-1	11
	SRG1-2	40
	NCA Grade 1 Total	51
NCA Grade 2	SRG2-1	48
	SRG2-2	101
	NCA Grade 2 Total	149
NCA Grade 3	SRG3-1	13
	SRG3-2	4
	NCA Grade 3 Total	17
NCA Grade 4	SRG4-1	268
	SRG4-2	483
	SRG4-3	13
	NCA Grade 4 Total	764
NCA Grade 5	SRG5-1	274
	SRG5-2	357
	SRG5-3	712
	SRG5-4	33
	NCA Grade 5 Total	1376
Grand Total		2357

9.1.2 Due to the job market from which we recruit, the majority of officers on the spot rate framework are male. One of the priorities for the NCA is making our workforce more diverse. As officers progress through the ODP, we expect to see more female officers on spot rates. It is important we provide female officers with opportunities to progress up the grade structure. At Grade 1 we only have 14 female officers on the spot rate framework, compared to 37 male officers; it is the differences within the spot rate structure which will have the biggest impact on the gender pay gap.

Table 70: Number of officers on SR by Grade and Gender

Grade	Spot Rate	Female	Male
NCA Grade 1	SRG1-1	5	6
	SRG1-2	9	31
	NCA Grade 1 Total	14	37
NCA Grade 2	SRG2-1	15	33
	SRG2-2	19	82
	NCA Grade 2 Total	34	115
NCA Grade 3	SRG3-1	3	10
	SRG3-2	1	3
	NCA Grade 3 Total	4	13
NCA Grade 4	SRG4-1	99	169
	SRG4-2	147	336
	SRG4-3	1	12
	NCA Grade 4 Total	247	517
NCA Grade 5	SRG5-1	152	122
	SRG5-2	179	178
	SRG5-3	325	387
	SRG5-4	3	30
	NCA Grade 5 Total	659	717
Grand Total		958	1399

9.1.3 If we look at the ethnicity breakdown we see a similar picture to the current gender balance, with the number of ethnic minority (EM) officers at Grade 1 being zero, and the majority of officers sitting 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 reduce the ethnicity pay gap.

Table 71: Number of officers by Grade and Ethnicity

Grade	Spot Rate	White	EM/Other	Prefer not to say	Not Declared
NCA Grade 1	SRG1-1	10	0	1	0
	SRG1-2	37	0	1	2
	NCA Grade 1 Total	47	0	2	2
NCA Grade 2	SRG2-1	39	5	3	1
	SRG2-2	84	2	3	12
	NCA Grade 2 Total	123	7	6	13
NCA Grade 3	SRG3-1	11	0	0	2
	SRG3-2	3	0	0	1
	NCA Grade 3 Total	14	0	0	3
NCA Grade 4	SRG4-1	211	22	8	27
	SRG4-2	383	28	21	51
	SRG4-3	10	0	1	2
	NCA Grade 4 Total	604	50	30	80
NCA Grade 5	SRG5-1	214	40	10	10
	SRG5-2	288	39	13	17
	SRG5-3	601	43	26	42
	SRG5-4	30	0	1	2
	NCA Grade 5 Total	1133	122	50	71
Grand Total		1921	179	88	169

9.2 Standard Pay Range

9.2.1 As shown in Tables 32-39, the majority 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 72: Standard Pay Range by Grade

Grade	Quartile	Total
NCA Grade 1	Grade Minimum	47
	1st Quartile	5
	2nd Quartile	5
	3rd Quartile	5
	4th Quartile	3
	NCA Grade 1 Total	65
NCA Grade 2	Grade Minimum	178
	1st Quartile	13
	2nd Quartile	5
	3rd Quartile	7
	4th Quartile	1
	Grade Maximum	2
	NCA Grade 2 Total	206
NCA Grade 3	Grade Minimum	658
	1st Quartile	85
	2nd Quartile	74
	3rd Quartile	29
	4th Quartile	6
	Grade Maximum	6
	NCA Grade 3 Total	858
NCA Grade 4	Grade Minimum	618
	1st Quartile	81
	2nd Quartile	98
	3rd Quartile	79
	4th Quartile	41
	Grade Maximum	40
	NCA Grade 4 Total	957
NCA Grade 5	Grade Minimum	666
	1st Quartile	69
	2nd Quartile	88
	3rd Quartile	134
	4th Quartile	79
	Grade Maximum	6
	NCA Grade 5 Total	1042
NCA Grade 6	Grade Minimum	163
	1st Quartile	13
	2nd Quartile	12
	3rd Quartile	77
	4th Quartile	25
	Grade Maximum	14
	NCA Grade 6 Total	304
Grand total		3432

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. However, the gap is starting to improve on the standard pay range.

Table 73: Standard Pay Range by Grade and Gender

Grade	Quartile	Female	Male
NCA Grade 1	Grade Minimum	23	24
	1st Quartile	2	3
	2nd Quartile	1	4
	3rd Quartile	0	5
	4th Quartile	0	3
	NCA Grade 1 Total	26	39
NCA Grade 2	Grade Minimum	94	84
	1st Quartile	7	6
	2nd Quartile	2	3
	3rd Quartile	2	5
	4th Quartile	0	1
	Grade Maximum	1	1
	NCA Grade 2 Total	106	100
NCA Grade 3	Grade Minimum	288	370
	1st Quartile	20	65
	2nd Quartile	19	55
	3rd Quartile	11	18
	4th Quartile	1	5
	Grade Maximum	0	6
	NCA Grade 3 Total	339	519
NCA Grade 4	Grade Minimum	348	270
	1st Quartile	37	44
	2nd Quartile	49	49
	3rd Quartile	26	53
	4th Quartile	12	29
	Grade Maximum	8	32
	NCA Grade 4 Total	480	477
NCA Grade 5	Grade Minimum	437	229
	1st Quartile	43	26
	2nd Quartile	46	42
	3rd Quartile	76	58
	4th Quartile	29	50
	Grade Maximum	1	5
	NCA Grade 5 Total	632	410
NCA Grade 6	Grade Minimum	106	57
	1st Quartile	9	4
	2nd Quartile	8	4
	3rd Quartile	48	29
	4th Quartile	20	5
	Grade Maximum	5	9
	NCA Grade 6 Total	196	108
Grand Total		1779	1653

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

Table 74: Standard Pay Range by Grade and Ethnicity

Grade	Quartile	White	EM/Other	Prefer not to say	Not Declared
NCA Grade 1	Grade Minimum	39	2	2	4
	1st Quartile	5	0	0	0
	2nd Quartile	4	1	0	0
	3rd Quartile	5	0	0	0
	4th Quartile	2	0	1	0
	NCA Grade 1 Total	55	3	3	4
NCA Grade 2	Grade Minimum	149	16	6	7
	1st Quartile	12	0	0	1
	2nd Quartile	5	0	0	0
	3rd Quartile	6	0	0	1
	4th Quartile	1	0	0	0
	Grade Maximum	1	1	0	0
	NCA Grade 2 Total	174	17	6	9
NCA Grade 3	Grade Minimum	532	67	25	34
	1st Quartile	76	1	1	7
	2nd Quartile	59	1	6	8
	3rd Quartile	25	1	1	2
	4th Quartile	6	0	0	0
	Grade Maximum	6	0	0	0
	NCA Grade 3 Total	704	70	33	51
NCA Grade 4	Grade Minimum	458	108	19	33
	1st Quartile	60	5	4	12
	2nd Quartile	86	4	3	5
	3rd Quartile	59	4	6	10
	4th Quartile	27	4	2	8
	Grade Maximum	33	1	4	2
	NCA Grade 4 Total	723	126	38	70
NCA Grade 5	Grade Minimum	494	115	25	32
	1st Quartile	46	11	2	10
	2nd Quartile	67	12	2	7
	3rd Quartile	92	16	4	22
	4th Quartile	54	3	2	20
	Grade Maximum	4	0	0	2
	NCA Grade 5 Total	757	157	35	93
NCA Grade 6	Grade Minimum	104	53	1	5
	1st Quartile	9	3	1	0
	2nd Quartile	8	2	1	1
	3rd Quartile	58	14	2	3
	4th Quartile	20	3	1	1
	Grade Maximum	9	2	0	3
	NCA Grade 6 Total	208	77	6	13
Grand Total		2621	450	121	240

10. Market Comparators

Table 75: Median Pay Gap Between the NCA and Police Officers^{[footnote 33]}

Rank	Chief Supt/ NCA Grade 1	Supt / NCA Grade 2	Chief Inspector / NCA Grade 3	Sergeant / NCA Grade 4	Constable / NCA Grade 5
2024	£29,680	£24,449	£11,295	£6,633	£7,743
2023	£25,683	£23,489	£10,905	£6,441	£7,484
2022	£21,166	£19,061	£11,684	£6,020	£6,995
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 76: Pay Bill per head for NCA and Police Officers & Staff

Year	NCA pay bill per head	Police pay bill per head
2023-24	£69,424	£74,955
2022-23	£64,811	£74,898
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 77: NCA and Police pay range maximum

NCA Grade	NCA Maximum	Police Maximum	Difference	Number of pay police pay points	Difference between 2023 and 2024
Grade 1	£96,384	£111,117	£14,733	3	-£3,285
Grade 2	£79,099	£95,025	£15,926	4	-£541
Grade 3	£65,169	£70,200	£5,031	4	£79
Grade 4	£52,594	£53,943	£1,349	3	£60
Grade 5	£44,546	£48,231	£3,685	8	-£65

Table 78: NCA and Police pay range minima

NCA Grade	NCA Minimum	Police Minimum	Difference	Number of pay police pay points	Difference between 2023 and 2024
Grade 1	£78,847	£96,612	£17,765	3	-£2,237
Grade 2	£64,759	£80,784	£16,025	4	£579
Grade 3	£53,232	£61,197	£7,965	4	£240
Grade 4	£43,415	£51,408	£7,993	3	£263
Grade 5	£34,537	£29,907	-£4,630	8	-£289

Table 79: Pay Comparison between the NCA and Civil Service Median during 2023.

Grade	NCA Minima	NCA Maxima	NCA	Median	Civil Service Minima	Civil Service Maxima	Civil Service Median
NCA Grade 1 / G6	£75,092	£91,794	£77,559	£57,362	£95,689	£69,453
NCA Grade 2 / G7	£61,675	£75,332	£61,675	£46,000	£76,766	£55,543
NCA Grade 3 / SEO	£50,697	£62,065	£50,697	£36,515	£64,860	£42,001
NCA Grade 4 / HEO	£41,347	£50,089	£45,057	£30,000	£45,000	£34,623
NCA Grade 5 / EO	£32,892	£42,424	£38,560	£23,500	£35,936	£28,136
NCA Grade 6 / AO	£24,557	£30,928	£24,557	£21,000	£33,000	£24,138
No NCA Equivalent / AA	N/A	N/A	N/A	£20,049	£28,446	£22,136

Table 80: Comparison between the NCA pay maximum compared to Police since 2014

2014:

	NCA Pay Max	Police Pay Max	Difference
G1 (CS G6)	£80,883	£83,094	-£2,211
G2 (CS G7)	£66,025	£75,066	-£9,041
G3 (CS SEO)	£54,050	£55,005	-£955
G4 (CS HEO)	£43,240	£41,865	£1,375
G5 (CS EO)	£36,321	£37,254	-£933

2024:

	NCA Pay Max	Police Pay Max	Difference
G1 (CS G6)	£96,384	£111,117	-£14,733
G2 (CS G7)	£79,099	£95,025	-£15,926
G3 (CS SEO)	£65,169	£70,200	-£5,031
G4 (CS HEO)	£52,594	£53,943	-£1,349
G5 (CS EO)	£44,546	£48,231	-£3,685

Table 81: Comparison between highest NCA Spot Rate and Police Median

NCA Grade	NCA Highest Spot Rate	Police Median	Difference
Grade 1	£87,868	£111,117	-£23,249
Grade 2	£76,214	£89,208	-£12,994
Grade 3	£57,165	£64,527	-£7,362
Grade 4	£51,238	£53,943	-£2,705
Grade 5	£43,046	£48,231	-£5,185

Table 82: Comparison between NCA Median Spot Rate and Police Officer Median

NCA Grade	NCA Median Spot Rate	Police Officer Median	Difference
Grade 1	£87,868	£111,117	-£23,249
Grade 2	£76,214	£89,208	-£12,994
Grade 3	£53,232	£64,527	-£11,295
Grade 4	£51,238	£53,943	-£2,705
Grade 5	£43,046	£48,231	-£5,185

Table 83: Pay range length of NCA grades

NCA Grade	NCA Minimum	NCA Maximum	Pay Range Length
Grade 1	£78,847	£96,384	22%
Grade 2	£64,759	£79,099	22%
Grade 3	£53,232	£65,169	22%
Grade 4	£43,415	£52,594	21%
Grade 5	£34,537	£44,546	29%
Grade 6	£25,785	£32,475	26%

Table 84: NCA Pay Award costs

NCA Pay Award Costs
(Basic Pay and Location Allowances) %	£
2.9%	£ 4.93m

Table 85: Location allowance comparison between NCA and Civil Service

Location Allowances	London	South East	Outer London	Inner London	Fringe
NCA	£4,040	£3,232
Civil Service*	£1,050 - £5,385		£1,050 - £3,961
Agenda for Change			£4,552 - £5,735	£5,415 - £8,171	£1,258 - £2,121

Table 86: Location allowance comparison between NCA and Police

Location Allowances – Police	London Weighting	London Allowance 1	London Allowance/ 2	South East Allowance
NCA	£4,040			£3,232
City of London Police	£8,362
Met Police	£2,886*	£1,011*	£4,327*
Bedfordshire Police				£1,500
Essex Police				£3,000
Hampshire Police				£2,000
Hertfordshire Police				£3,000
Kent Police				£3,000
Surrey Police				£3,000
Sussex Police				£2,000
Thames Valley Police				£3,000
Ministry of Defence Police[footnote 34]	£3,024**		£4,338**	£2,000 - £3,000

*MPS officers will receive the total of all three allowances.

**MOD Police working with Whitehall will receive the total of both London allowances.

Table 87: Location allowance comparison between NCA and Civil Service Departments

Civil Service - Location Allowance by Department*	Inner London	Outer London	As part of Salary
Charity Commission	£4,245	N/A	N/A
Crown Prosecution Service	£3,150	£1,050	N/A
Defence, Equipment and Support	£3,000	£1,500	N/A
Department for Work and Pensions	N/A	N/A	YES
Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office Services	£5,000	£1,750	N/A
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office	£5,000	N/A	N/A
Homes England	£3,961	£3,961	N/A
Intellectual Property Office	£4,970 (AA-AO) £3,895 (EO-G6)	N/A	N/A
Maritime and Coastguard Agency	£4,000	N/A	N/A
Ministry of Defence	£3,250	£1,750	N/A
Office for Students	£3,566	N/A	N/A
Tate Gallery	£3,000	N/A	N/A
United Kingdom Research & Innovation	£5,385	£1,958	N/A
Valuation Office Agency	£1,050	N/A	N/A

*The information above has been retrieved from the data submitted by departments as part of the 2023/24 Insights Report. We have highlighted that there are 41 other departments in the report that have a location recorded as London, Inner London or Outer London, but do not state the value or whether it is part of the advertised salary.

1. Written Ministerial Statement – UIN HCWS577. ↩

2. NCARRB Tenth Report 2024. ↩

3. NCA Annual Report and Accounts: 2023 to 2024. ↩

4. www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk ↩

5. All data presented in Chapter 1 has been extracted from the NCA National Strategic Assessment 2024 unless otherwise indicated. ↩

6. International Organisation for Migration – Missing Migrant Project. Data correct as at November 2024. ↩

7. Office of National Statistics (ONS) ↩

8. NCA Annual Report and Accounts 2023-2024 ↩

9. ONS ↩

10. ONS ↩

11. Internal NCA workforce data. ↩

12. All workforce data presented in Chapter 2 has been extracted from internal NCA workforce data unless otherwise indicated. ↩

13. Pay and benefits Officer promotion Metropolitan Police ↩

14. The exception to this is ‘Expert’ rates at Grade 4 and Grade 5, which are higher than the Grade maxima. This Spot Rate is paid only to Authorised Firearms Officers (AFOs), and the NCA Remuneration Committee has overall responsibility for deciding which roles attract ‘Expert’ Spot Rate. ↩

15. Figure includes current officers and leavers since implementation. ↩

16. This section has been provided to the NCA by His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT). ↩

17. CIPD ↩

18. CIPD ↩

19. All NCA data presented in Chapter 3 has been extracted from internal NCA workforce data unless otherwise indicated ↩

20. Whilst we cannot report on the specific size of teams for security reasons, we have removed instances where team sizes were too small to provide meaningful data. ↩

21. The total FTE of Contingent Labour within the Agency as at April 2024 was 123.6 FTE. This provides a snapshot of the total Contingent Labour within the NCA for 2023/24. ↩

22. Civil Service HR Insights Report 2023. ↩

23. www.metfriendly.org.uk ↩

24. https://www.heforshe.org/en ↩

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

26. Officers funded by NCA Margin are those who are either in the 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. ↩

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

28. Officers funded by NCA Margin are those who are either in the 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. ↩

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

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

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

32. ~ denotes 10 or less, including values redacted to safeguard the identity of our Officers. ↩ ↩²

33. Please note that 39% of our workforce are on 40-hour contracts (excluding breaks), with the other 61% working a 37-hour week (excluding breaks). Police colleagues will work a 36.25-hour week (excluding breaks). ↩

34. https://www.mod.police.uk/what-we- offer/#:~:text=Some%20locations%20attract%20annual%20location%20allowances%20on%20a,rate%20%E2%80%9 3%20%C2%A32%2C000%20for%20posts%20based%20at%20Portsmouth ↩