Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how the overseas work of the National Crime Agency is (a) monitored and (b) evaluated in order to assess its effectiveness in combatting drug trafficking and drug use in the UK.

The UK’s drugs strategy, published in December 2021, sets out the role of the NCA in tackling drugs supply and misuse in the UK and overseas.

In June 2022, the government published guidance for local partners in delivering the strategy which included the National Combating Drugs Outcomes Framework. These high-level outcomes will provide a clear focus for national and local accountability. We will monitor the effectiveness the NCA and other partners in delivering the new strategy against progress towards these key outcomes including disruption of criminal groups involved in drugs supply. Central oversight of progress against the strategy is led by the cross-government Joint Combating Drugs Unit.

Additionally, the NCA monitors its effectiveness using a performance outcomes framework, which assures delivery of the wider strategic priorities set by the Home Secretary. NCA performance is reported to parliament and publicly through its Annual Report and Accounts.