The National Crime Agency (NCA) needs to reform pay or face a staffing crisis, says the FDA.
The trade union has recently submitted evidence to the National Crime Agency Remuneration Review Body (NCARRB), which argues that the NCA is too restricted by “unreasonable Government restraints on their ability to reward their employees adequately”.
“In our evidence submitted in 2016, we reported that the Institute for Fiscal Studies predicted that labour shortages in the public sector would be a growing risk,” the FDA’s evidence states. “This remains a risk for the NCA because of the niche skills sets required from component parts of its workforce.”
The evidence goes on to explain that senior roles in the agency “will have greater difficulty with recruitment and retention because of market rate disparity”, as salary levels for senior grades in the public sector have fallen even further behind private sector wages.
The trade union is calling for a pay structure which allows faster pay progression for all grades.
The evidence was collated by National Officer Wynne Parry, who said: “FDA members in the NCA have seen disproportionate cuts to real-terms pay because of the Government’s restrictive pay policy.
“As our evidence to the NCA Remuneration Review Body demonstrates, failure to address this risks the loss of invaluable expertise from the Agency at a time when it faces new and greatly increased challenges from organised crime.”
The FDA will present oral evidence to the Review Body later this month. The NCARRB advises on pay levels for NCA staff with powers who are unable to take industrial action. The FDA bargains directly for staff without powers the FDA with the NCA along with other unions.
The FDA’s written evidence to the NCRRB can be downloaded from the union’s website.
This week, the FDA attended the 2026 TUC Congress in Brighton. FDA delegates spoke to and moved motions on a range of topics, including the review of the civil service, supporting effective management, accountability and safe contracting in the NHS, and the importance of an evidence-led approach to regulation.
Yesterday, FDA staff and reps attended the 2026 Fast Stream annual Base Camp, welcoming this year’s new joiners to the scheme and sharing the benefits of FDA membership with them.
The FDA’s National Officer for Northern Ireland Robert Murtagh has written to Speaker of the Assembly, Edwin Poots, asking him to remind MLAs that when officials appear before the Assembly, impartiality must not be brought into question.
