Overview
- Policing minister Sarah Jones told MPs the 41 PCC posts will be phased out at the end of current terms, with the next scheduled PCC elections in 2028 canceled.
- Powers will move to directly elected mayors wherever they exist and to council leaders via new policing and crime boards elsewhere, with Welsh arrangements reflecting devolved structures.
- The Home Office projects savings of about £100 million this Parliament and roughly £20 million annually, which ministers say will fund neighbourhood policing equivalent to around 320 constables each year.
- Ministers argue the PCC model delivered weak accountability, low public engagement and hindered chief constable recruitment, citing turnout below 25% and limited public awareness.
- The APCC and several PCCs criticized the plan as creating an accountability risk, Conservatives called it “tinkering,” and the government pointed to an imminent white paper setting out broader policing reforms.