Director General of National Crime Agency eyes CMA for reform

3 November 2019

Lynne Owens, Director General of the National Crime Agency, the UK's lead agency against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cyber crime; and economic crime, used an interview with the Mail on Sunday to suggest that the Computer Misuse Act had failed to keep pace with technology.

She said: “The Computer Misuse Act went through Parliament at a time when cyber wasn’t the tool that it now is to enable all sorts of crimes like fraud.”

It came as a review was announced into serious and organised crime, to be carried about by Sir Craig Mackey, a former Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner. The review was to assess whether the National Crime Agency needed more resources and whether any other reforms could better enable the Agency to fight organised crime. Lynne Owens suggested CMA reform be considered as part of the review.