'Failed experiment' PCC roles to be axed in 2028

POLICE and crime commissioners (PCCs) are to be scrapped after being branded a “failed experiment” by the Government.

- DANIEL HOLLAND

> Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Susan Dungworth > Durham Police and Crime Commissioner Joy Allen

Labour ministers announced yesterday morning that the controversial roles will be abolished at the end of their current term in 2028, saying they had not inspired public confidence, in the hope of saving £20m a year that could be reinvested back into frontline policing.

The elected officials were introduced in 2012 and are responsible for setting police budgets, appointing chief constables, and scrutinising forces’ performance against the PCC’s plan. But policing minister Sarah Jones told the House of Commons yesterday that two in five people are “unaware PCCs even exist” and that the model had “weakened local police accountability and has had perverse impacts on the recruitment of chief constables’.

PCCs’ responsibilities are now expected to transfer either to elected mayors or local council leaders.

Sources told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that it is widely expected that the Northumbria PCC’s role, currently occupied by Labour's Susan Dungworth, will shift to the North East mayor.