David Hanson MP, Labour’s Shadow Policing Minister, said:

“The National Crime Agency doesn’t match the Government’s hype. It is welcome that the NCA has finally arrived after 3 years of delay and we support strengthening work on organised crime and the hard work of Keith Bristow and his team. But most of the NCA is just the rebranding of existing organisations such as the Serious Organised Crime Agency, but with a substantial 20% cut imposed by the Home Office on their overall budget.

"The new organisation is not strong enough to deal with the exponential growth of economic and online crime. It will simply absorb the existing National Cyber Crime but with fewer resources.

“And due to Government mishandling it won’t be able to operate in Northern Ireland leaving a serious operational gap compared to the Serious Organised Crime Agency that it replaced. It is extremely worrying that organised crime which crosses between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK will not be properly dealt with because the Home Secretary mishandled the legislation with the relevant parties in Northern Ireland.

"It is right to have stronger national action on organised crime with the NCA, on child exploitation and on intelligence but the Government has to support this effort and not simply use this as a rebranding exercise to hide substantial policing cuts.”