Devolved administrations

SOCA has a duty of care to the whole of the UK. Its activities are therefore aligned to reduce harm to communities wherever they are.

Given the different operating, legislative and political environments in Scotland and Northern Ireland, SOCA’s policies are designed to be sufficiently flexible to cater for local delivery of national priorities. In both jurisdictions, SOCA has agreed priorities with its partners in government and the law enforcement community to ensure it is best placed to contribute to the fight against serious organised criminal activity.

In Northern Ireland, SOCA works with the PSNI and has an enforcement team as part of our overall deployment there.

In Scotland, SOCA’s activities are geared towards partnership working and focus mainly on intelligence support.

To ensure SOCA's activities remain consistent with local priorities, SOCA sits as full members of the appropriate policy-setting forums - Northern Ireland’s Organised Crime Task Force, Scotland’s Serious Organised Crime Task Force, the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) Crime Business Area - as well as the tasking and coordination groups that assess priorities and deploy resources.