The National High-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) was disbanded last April on the basis that its functions could be better performed elsewhere. Parts of its role were absorbed into the newly-created Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca), and parts were devolved back to police forces.

But Soca is only involved with very high-level incidences of certain types of crime. And Computing’s investigation showed that local forces, with straitened budgets and multiple competing priorities, are ill-equipped to deal with e-crime.

London’s Metropolitan Police – by far the largest of the UK’s 53 independent forces – is now suggesting that its own e-crime unit fills the gap left by the NHTCU.

The plan has much to recommend it, as the huge cost of creating a national organisation from scratch, so soon after its predecessor was disbanded, is impractical.

There is a clear and urgent need for a central agency, to co-ordinate responses to what is often a non-geographic offence and to track the scale and extent of e-crimes. The public information role of the old NHTCU, and its prevention work with the business sector, are also sorely missed.

But building up the Met’s capacity will still cost money that the Home Office may be unwilling to spend on anything other than extra prison places. And creating a middle tier between local forces and Soca does not mean the job is done.

What is required, as a matter of urgency, is a careful analysis of the multitude of activities covered by the single term e-crime. Only then will it be clear where different types of offence are best handled, and how the separate levels of response can be most effectively co-ordinated.

The UK’s ability to tackle e-crime is already suffering. The confusion and lack of understanding must be addressed before any organisational structures are established. Without such clarity, we will merely be left with the worst of both worlds.

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