The Police Reform White Paper, published on 26 January 2026, set out the Government’s commitment to introduce a new model for policing, so that it is fit for the modern world and we have the right policing in the right places. We will ensure local police forces are equipped to make their local communities safer and implement a new national approach to policing that protects us all.

The Independent Review of Police Force Structures was launched on 17 March 2026 and will make recommendations on the optimal configuration of police forces. The Chair will report their recommendations to the Home Secretary in the summer.

The Government will publish the Independent Review’s findings and its response in the autumn.

Following the announcement by the Policing Minister on 13 November that the government will abolish Police and Crime Commissioners, we are working with local government and policing to design new arrangements for the oversight of policing, including relationships between Chief Constables.

Further detail will be set out in the forthcoming Police Reform White Paper.

The Home Office does not collect data on Chief Constable tenure.

Despite the efforts of many individual PCCs, the model of a direct 1:1 relationship between elected Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables has not always facilitated effective management of police forces.

The cost of local police governance, according to data published by Office of Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales, was approximately £93m in 2023/24. We are working with the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners to obtain more up to date information about the costs of police governance, to inform ongoing work on the design and implementation of alternative governance arrangements.

We expect to be able save at least £20m per annum from 2028/29 as a result of aligning back office and support arrangements for policing governance with wider local government functions. We will be undertaking work to identify further savings as part of our work on future governance arrangements.

The cost of local police governance, according to data published by Office of Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales, was approximately £93m in 2023/24. We are working with the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners to obtain more up to date information about the costs of police governance, to inform ongoing work on the design and implementation of alternative governance arrangements.

We expect to be able save at least £20m per annum from 2028/29 as a result of aligning back office and support arrangements for policing governance with wider local government functions. We will be undertaking work to identify further savings as part of our work on future governance arrangements.

We recognise the important work PCCs do to commission vital support services for victims and witnesses of crime. We are working closely with the Ministry of Justice to establish how PCCs’ existing victims’ responsibilities will operate within the new police governance system. Ensuring continuity of support for victims in the future arrangements will be a key priority.

We are establishing transition working groups to consider the design and implementation of the future governance arrangements. One of these will specifically focus on partnerships and commissioning, including victims’ responsibilities.

The announcement of the Government’s intention to abolish the Police and Crime Commissioner model is the first of a series of reforms that will be set out in the forthcoming Police Reform White Paper, to drive quality, consistency and efficiency in policing and ensure it is set up to deliver for the public.

We will bring forward legislation to give effect to the reforms in the White Paper, including legislating for alternative police governance arrangements, when parliamentary time allows. An impact assessment will be published alongside this legislation.

Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) were established in 2012 with the promise of making the police more accountable and connected to the communities they serve. But data shows that awareness of PCCs has remained low, with only a quarter of electors turning out at last year’s elections.

Furthermore, as recognised in a House Of Commons research briefing on Police and Crime Commissioners published in October 2024, despite the efforts of many individual PCCs the model of a direct 1:1 relationship between elected Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables has not always facilitated effective management of police forces; and the model has siloed policing under a separate directly elected individual, creating structural, and in some cases political barriers, to collaboration across local services.

We will work with policing and local government stakeholders to ensure that future governance arrangements maintain strong oversight of policing, whilst maximising the join-up of local services.

The cost of the 2016 Police and Crime Commissioner elections was £49.6m. A detailed report on the cost of that election can be found at (attached) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-costs-of-the-2016-police-and-crime-commissioner-elections.

The cost of the 2021 Police and Crime Commissioner election was £49.3m and a detailed report will be published shortly.

The final cost of the 2024 PCC election will not be known until all the Returning Officer claims have been scrutinised and settled. However, the estimated cost is approximately £87m as set out in the (attached) The Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Local Returning Officers’ and Police Area Returning Officers’ Charges) Order 2024.

These figures represent the total cost of running the PCC elections. Where PCC elections were combined with other polls, some costs – such as for polling stations – were shared across all polls. This reduced the overall cost for each election compared to running them separately. The cost of PCC elections is met from the Consolidated Fund.

The due diligence exercise and compliance assessment to establish compliance under the International Sportsperson visa route are ongoing. Assessments and lines of enquiry may be revisited throughout. We are working closely with the bodies relevant to basketball, including the Department for Culture, Media and Sports, to ensure we have a full evidential basis prior to reaching a conclusion. All bodies included in the exercise will be notified when the exercises are completed.

The Department is committed to reducing the harm from all illicit drugs. Any illegal drug use, including cannabis, can be harmful, both from immediate side-effects and long-term physical and mental health problems. It can, for some, have a negative impact on their fertility. Cannabis use can contribute to and exacerbate existing mental health problems or can accelerate their development in people predisposed to mental health problems. We are aware of the book, ‘Epidemiology of Cannabis: Genotoxicity, Neurotoxicity, Epigenomics and Aging by A.S. Reece and G.K. Hulse’. No conclusions have been drawn from the evidence set out within it.

Information on the impact cannabis has on health can be found on the National Health Service website and Talk to FRANK, the Government’s drugs information and advice service. The Frank website also has basic harm reduction advice and details of drug treatment services and support organisations.

We know that drug treatment is protective and the number of places in treatment for people who use non-opiate drugs including cannabis is being increased by 30,000 compared to 2021/22, including 5,000 more places for young people in treatment.

The number of people in England receiving treatment for problems with cannabis use increased from 63,854 in 2021/22 to 74,931 people in 2023/24.

NHS England undertakes a mandatory data collection from all general practices (GPs) in England, which they must complete every year, by way of an annual survey called the electronic practice self-declaration (eDEC). Within that survey, questions cover the practice’s premises and equipment with regards to service provision, compliance with health and safety regulations, and infection control, as defined in the contract, specifically as per Regulations 12(2)(d-f) and (h) and 15 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) and Regulations 2014 (as amended) and the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974). The survey asks GPs to confirm that at least one consulting room in the practice premises is accessible to wheelchair users. NHS England holds this data at a national level.

NHS England also publishes data on the accessibility of practice buildings, which is already within the public domain on the NHS.UK website, although this may not specifically include the eDec data return.

The Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag was developed to enable health and care workers to record, share, and view details of reasonable adjustments, across the National Health Service and social care, wherever a person is seen or treated. Following the launch of the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag Information Standard, published September 2023, the flag went live in the National Care Record Service, and is being rolled out across England. To support health and social care organisations in implementing the Digital Flag, NHS England has published a useful checklist, which is available on the NHS.UK website in an online only format, and staff can access free training, also on the NHS.UK website.

The information requested is not collected or held centrally, however NHS England has set an expectation that integrated care boards can collect this data for their local populations.

The information requested is not collected or held centrally.

It is the responsibility of individual employers and providers to provide reasonable adjustments. Under the Equality Act 2010, health and social care organisations have a legal duty to make changes in their approach or provision to ensure that services are as accessible to disabled people as they are for everybody else.

NHS England routinely collects data on both cancelled and missed hospital appointments, although data is not collected on the reasons why, and cannot be disaggregated to explain causes.

All National Health Service organisations and publicly funded social care providers are expected to meet the Accessible Information Standard (AIS), which details the approach to supporting the information and communication support needs of people with a disability, impairment, or sensory loss, including people using British Sign Language.

On 1 July 2025, a refreshed AIS was published. NHS England is working to support implementation of the AIS with awareness raising, communication and engagement, and a review of the current e-learning modules on the AIS.

There are currently no plans to disaggregate NHS Outcomes Framework indicators in terms of disability status and impairment type.

The information requested is not held centrally. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for commissioning services to meet the needs of their local population, which includes responsibility for ensuring that there is adequate provision of British Sign Language interpreters to support deaf patients in the community.

Since the launch of the Birmingham Intensive Supervision Court in June 2023 through to the end of February 2025, a total of 77 women have been sentenced to a community order. The breakdown of the attached requirements are as follows:

(1) a drug rehabilitation requirement – 38 (49%)

(2) a mental health treatment requirement – 62 (81%)

(3) an alcohol treatment requirement – 17 (22%)

(4) an unpaid work requirement – less that 5 (less than 6%)

(5) a curfew requirement – less than 5 (less than 6%)

Note: counts of less than 5 have been suppressed for privacy reasons.

Since the launch of the Birmingham Intensive Supervision Court in June 2023 through to the end of February 2025, the average number of requirements attached to a community order under the Birmingham Women’s Intensive Supervision Court has been three requirements per order.

Since the launch of the Birmingham Intensive Supervision Court in June 2023 through to February 2025, 96 women have been sentenced under the Birmingham Intensive Supervision Court. 77 women (80%) were sentenced to a Community Order and 19 women (20%) were sentenced to a Suspended Sentence Order.

We do not hold the information in the format requested. To produce and quality assure the information requested would be of disproportionate cost.

The average cost to the Probation Service in 2023-24 of an additional person on the probation licence caseload (including probation pre-release costs) was estimated at c.£4,500 compared with c.£3,150 for an additional person on the probation court order caseload (community orders and suspended sentence orders). This can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65537c7d50475b000dc5b590/Sentencing_Bill_-_IA_-_HDC.pdf.

These costs cover requirements such as unpaid work as well as sentence management time. They do not, however, include treatment costs for drug rehabilitation requirements, mental health requirements, alcohol treatment requirements and do not include curfew costs. Note that the costs presented exclude some costs to the Ministry of Justice, such as costs not directly tied to changes in probation caseload and Ministry of Justice HQ costs. Costs of individuals will vary considerably based on a number of factors including risk levels, requirements and needs.