Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking to steps to support the National Crime Agency to implement a recruitment strategy for meeting operational challenges presented by small-boat crossings in the English Channel.

We work closely with the National Crime Agency to ensure it has the resources it needs to investigate organised immigration crime leading to small boat crossings. Since July, we have funded an extra 100 specialist NCA intelligence and investigative officers focusing on this threat. The NCA and the new Border Security Command, backed by £150 million of funding, are together stepping up our efforts to smash the criminal gangs threatening our borders.

As announced alongside the National Crime Agency pay award on 29 July 2024, measures are underway to develop a set of comprehensive proposals for reform of the existing pay structure at the Agency. Once finalised, the government will seek to implement these proposals in a timely fashion, which in turn will support the Agency’s recruitment and retention efforts.