Key powers to manage serious offenders
The court can impose a number of additional restrictions on serious offenders to help manage the risk of future offending. These restrictions are collectively referred to as 'Ancillary Orders'.
These restrictions are not imposed as additional punishment, but to restrict their ability to plan, fund and commit serious crime in future.
Key powers that can be imposed include:
Serious Crime Prevention Orders
Serious Crime Prevention Orders (SCPOs) are civil orders to prevent or deter serious crime. Breach of an SCPO is a criminal offence punishable by up to five years imprisonment and an unlimited fine. The restrictions that an SCPO can include are wide-ranging. As long as they are shown to be proportionate, justified and necessary to the circumstances of the case, they can include restrictions on:
- Communications devices such as mobile phones
- Conducting specific types of business bank accounts
- Associating with criminal associates
- Geographic restrictions
Travel Restriction Orders
A Travel Restriction Order (TRO) can be imposed on any offender convicted of a drug trafficking offence and sentenced to four years or more in prison, regardless of nationality.
The aim of the order is to reduce re-offending through restricting the movements of convicted drug traffickers. UK passport holders (including those with dual nationality) may be required to surrender their passports to the court.
The TRO comes into effect upon the offender’s release from prison and its minimum length is two years.
The penalty for breach of a TRO is up to five years’ imprisonment and/or a fine.
Licence Conditions
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) monitors the behaviour of offenders released from prison on licence through the use of standard and bespoke licence conditions.
The imposition of licence conditions can deter and frustrate offenders from committing further offences. If the offender breaks one or more of the conditions, such as by travelling abroad, they can be sent back to prison.
Our Lifetime Management Team works closely with HMPPS to develop licence conditions imposed on offenders of interest to the NCA and to ensure offenders comply with them.
Lifetime Management team
Our Lifetime Management team uses a wide range of investigative and intelligence techniques to monitor individuals compliance with these restrictions. In particular, the Lifetime Management Team works closely with partners to exchange information on these individuals to identify and reduce their opportunities for returning to criminal activity.
National Prisons Intelligence Coordination Centre
Some of our officers in the Lifetime Management Team work in the National Prisons Intelligence Coordination Centre (NPICC). The NPICC was established as an integrated multiagency unit with the remit to coordinate the response to the threat from all extremist, terrorist and organised crime prisoners across the UK.
We work with the NPICC to identify the highest harm offenders and to build an effective intelligence exchange mechanism. By working closely together all partners are better equipped to contain and control the threat from the highest harm offenders.