Soca should have an oversight body, say MPs

Serious Organised Crime Agency needs to be more accountable, says Home Affairs Committee report

Soca rose out of the ashes of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit

A body should be set up to oversee the work of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), the Home Affairs Committee said yesterday.

Soca is a national crime body - often described as Britain's FBI - that is responsible for tackling organised and high-tech crime.

It was set up in April 2006, absorbing the responsibilities of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit for investigating high-profile electronic crimes.

But the agency has a very low public profile and has suffered some criticism for lack of results.

In 2007, Computing reported that the agency's e-crime department, largely formed from the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, was suffering from low morale in the wake of a number of staff losses.

Soca chairman Sir Stephen Lander- now replaced by Ian Andrews – always argued that the agency needed time to secure results.

The agency has since had a number of high-profile successes, including the arrest of the Sumitomo-Mutsui bank hackers.

But better oversight is still needed, according to the report from the Home Affairs Committee.

"We are concerned that whatever effort we make to hold Soca to account, this is not the same as the day-to-day accountability that the various local police forces have to their police authorities," says the committee report.

"We therefore recommend the establishment of some form of police authority for Soca."