On November 19, 2025, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood delivered a speech that may mark the beginning of a seismic shift in the way policing is structured and run across England and Wales. Speaking at a major conference in Westminster attended by senior officers and police and crime commissioners (PCCs), Mahmood did not mince words, describing the current system as both “irrational” and a “postcode lottery.” With 43 separate forces, she argued, disparities in performance have grown too wide, leaving citizens with uneven levels of safety and service depending on where they live.
“The structure of our police forces is, if we are honest, irrational,” Mahmood told delegates at the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) summit, according to BBC. “We have loaded critical functions like the national police air service and vetting onto local forces, drawing attention away from neighbourhood policing. We have 43 forces tackling criminal gangs who cross borders, and the disparities in performance in forces across the country have grown far too wide, giving truth to the old saw that policing in this country is a postcode lottery.”
Her remarks echoed mounting criticism from police leaders themselves. Gavin Stephens, chair of the NPCC, has previously advocated for a reduction in the number of forces, suggesting that a smaller, consolidated structure would enable faster decision-making and more efficient use of resources. As Stephens put it, “A smaller number of police forces, supported by a national policing organisation, would enable us to make decisions far quicker and maximise funding to invest in technology and our workforce.”
Mahmood’s speech came at a time when police forces are facing a staggering £1.2 billion budget shortfall, as reported by Press Association. The financial pressure is palpable. Paul Sanford, Chief Constable of Norfolk Constabulary and chair of the NPCC Finance Coordination Committee, warned, “Policing is in a state of financial distress. We are seeing declining financial resilience across all forces.” The next funding settlement, due in early December, is awaited with a mixture of hope and anxiety by police leaders across the country.
But Mahmood’s reform agenda goes beyond just the structure and finances. She took aim at the proliferation of bureaucracy and inefficiency that has crept into everyday policing. “Clearly too much police time is spent behind a desk,” she told the conference, as quoted by the Daily Mail. “In part, this is because police forces across the country are duplicating work. The same types of software are being procured many times over instead of once. Nationally, thousands of man hours are wasted trawling through CCTV, inputting data or redacting documents and opportunities are missed to catch perpetrators because intelligence systems don’t communicate.”
Mahmood also highlighted the patchy adoption of new technology, which she described as “piecemeal,” with many forces still relying on outdated systems. This technological lag, she argued, further hampers the ability of the police to respond effectively to modern crime, particularly as criminal gangs and offenders operate seamlessly across regional borders.
One of the most headline-grabbing elements of Mahmood’s address was her announcement that the role of Police and Crime Commissioner would be abolished from 2028. The position, created in 2012, was intended to make police forces answerable to elected officials, with powers to set budgets, dismiss chief constables, and shape crime-fighting strategies. However, Mahmood pulled no punches in her assessment: “I believe the position of a Police and Crime Commissioner, unfortunately, has not worked. Without necessary investment in creating a public profile, too many voters were unaware of the existence of the position, or its occupant.”
She described the PCCs as a “failed experiment,” adding that the role had created “additional bureaucracy and hindered joint work between forces.” Critics have long argued that PCCs, who earn salaries of up to £101,900, are an extra layer of administration and a drain on public funds. Ministers now claim that scrapping the role will save £100 million during the current parliament, followed by about £20 million a year—enough, they say, to fund 320 extra police constables.
Oversight of local policing will instead be transferred to elected mayors in some regions or to policing boards made up mainly of local councillors. Some powers currently held by PCCs, such as the ability to remove a chief constable, will revert to the Home Secretary. “We will bring some powers back in house under the Home Secretary, as they were in years gone by,” Mahmood said, according to the Daily Mail. “It is vital that police forces are held to account democratically. It is also essential that we ensure there is consistency in the application of the law across forces.”
Not everyone is convinced. The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners warned that the abolition risks creating a “dangerous accountability vacuum.” Emily Spurrell, the APCC chair and Merseyside PCC, cautioned, “Abolishing PCCs now, without any consultation, as policing faces a crisis of public trust and confidence and as it is about to be handed a much stronger national centre, risks creating a dangerous accountability vacuum.”
Mahmood’s reformist zeal was also evident in her comments on the role of police in the digital age. She warned chiefs against investigating “perfectly legal language” used on social media, a practice that has drawn criticism for wasting police time on “non-crime hate incidents.” “Clearly, the public rightly expect that we police our streets. There is most certainly criminality online. Some things cannot be legally tweeted, just as they cannot be legally said, but we should not be policing perfectly legal language in any individual’s tweets,” she said. Mahmood stressed that police should focus on rising street crime, shoplifting, phone theft, and drug offenses—crimes that are of key concern to the public and are reportedly increasing at a “considerable rate.”
Further changes are on the horizon. In her speech, Mahmood announced that Lord MacDonald, the former director of public prosecutions, will review police powers around protests and social media. And as the government prepares to publish a White Paper on policing in December, the Home Secretary made her intentions clear: “I was a reformer at the Ministry of Justice and will be a reformer at the Home Office, too. I will be driven, above all else, by performance that will provide the right level of scrutiny and accountability without ever stepping into operational independence, which ensures that all of you can police expertly, without fear or favour.”
With a White Paper due in the coming weeks and the promise of major reforms, the future of policing in England and Wales hangs in the balance. The questions now facing policymakers, police, and the public are not just about how many forces there should be, but how best to deliver fair, effective, and accountable policing in a rapidly changing society.
