The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) is a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom under Home Office sponsorship. SOCA is a national law enforcement agency, established as a body corporate under Section 1 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, which operates within the United Kingdom and collaborates (through its network of international offices) with many foreign law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The Agency was formed on 1 April 2006 following a merger of the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service (elements of which were incorporated into AVCIS), the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), the investigative and intelligence sections of HM Revenue & Customs on serious drug trafficking, and the Immigration Service's responsibilities for organised immigration crime. The Assets Recovery Agency became part of SOCA in 2008, while the Serious Fraud Office remains a separate agency.
SOCA Officers can be designated the powers of a constable, customs officer or immigration officer and/or any combination of these three sets of powers. The Director General of SOCA (or his designate) is responsible for determining which powers are given to members of staff which can be altered depending on the nature of the investigation. Those police powers requiring a constable to be in uniform cannot be exercised by SOCA Officers as the agency is non-uniformed.
SOCA operates with greater powers in England and Wales than in Scotland and Northern Ireland and as such works with the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency and the Organised Crime Task Force (Northern Ireland), which share some of its functions in their respective jurisdictions.
In June 2011, the coalition government announced that SOCA's operations will be merged into a larger National Crime Agency, to launch in 2013, which will be carried out by virtue of the Crime and Courts Bill.
Read more about Serious Organised Crime Agency: Background, Governance, Organisation, National Central Bureau, Money Laundering, Computer Crime, Website Outages
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