SDLP changes policy to support British National Crime Agency

The SDLP has reversed a previous party position and decided to support the UK National Crime Agency (NCA), dubbed as Britain's FBI.

The SDLP said it has now won “substantial changes” on how the agency would work that would make it accountable to the North’s Policing Board and the PSNI.

Sinn Féin is now the only party in the Northern Assembly which opposes the NCA operating in Northern Ireland. The agency was established in Britain in October 2013.

Previously, Sinn Féin and SDLP opposition meant that the NCA could not become fully functional in the North, but that seems certain to change with this SDLP shift of position. It is expected that legislation will be introduced in the Assembly shortly to make the agency fully operable in Northern Ireland.

The NCA is a UK-wide organisation that tackles organised crime, human, weapon and drug trafficking and economic and cyber crime that cross regional and international borders.

SDLP leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell said the party has changed its stance on the agency following concessions gained after "hard negotiation" with British home secretary Theresa May and the British justice ministry.

Supporting an Assembly motion on Tuesday evening to extend the functions of the agency to Northern Ireland Dr McDonnell said: “A long negotiation during 2014 and into 2015 has secured real progress . . . We negotiated hard and have delivered significant concessions.”

Unrelenting threat

Accountability, he added, “is being established. The Policing Board has a full and proper role. The PSNI must agree to NCA intelligence activities. NCA officers will be subject to the same code of ethics as the PSNI. The powers of the Police Ombudsman will be fully in place.

“All of this means that, not least with the unrelenting threat of organised crime, now is the right time and the right circumstances to move on the NCA,” said the SDLP leader.

Dr McDonnell said the SDLP negotiations had been with the home secretary directly, Minister of Justice, National Crime Agency and the PSNI. The objectives included embedding human rights requirements in the life of the NCA, ensuring accountability to the Policing Board, removing the London veto and giving a full role to the Police Ombudsman.

Pressure will now mount on Sinn Féin to also sign up to the agency. The party this evening acknowledged that concessions have been gained.

Even with continued Sinn Féin opposition, the legislation necessary to fully implement the NCA in Northern Ireland is likely to be passed as the party does not have the voting strength to block enactment.