“Deeply disappointed” and warning the change “risks creating a dangerous accountability vacuum”, Merseyside’s police and crime commissioner Emily Spurrell said as ministers moved to abolish PCCs. Spurrell, who chairs the Association of PCCs, argued the posts have strengthened scrutiny and victim support in recent years.

The Home Office confirmed on 13 November 2025 that police and crime commissioners will be abolished at the end of their current terms in 2028. Ministers say the shift will save at least £100m this Parliament, with £20m a year redirected into neighbourhood policing - enough for around 320 officers. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood called the PCC model “a failed experiment”.

For much of the North, this won’t be new ground. Greater Manchester moved to mayoral oversight in 2017; West Yorkshire followed in 2021; South Yorkshire joined them in May 2024. In those areas, the mayor sets the police and crime plan, oversees the budget and holds the chief constable to account.

Officials say PCC duties will pass to elected mayors “wherever possible”, and to council leaders elsewhere. In non‑mayoral areas, councils are expected to stand up policing and crime boards to provide scrutiny. That’s the broad template ministers want in place by 2028.

The case from Whitehall is simple: cut governance costs and put the money on the beat. Alongside the abolition, a Police Reform White Paper will outline a new National Centre of Policing and a performance unit, while the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee continues to roll out.

Not everyone is convinced. Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp called the plan “tinkering around the edges” and accused ministers of “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic”. He argues it won’t fix day‑to‑day crime pressures by itself.

Rank‑and‑file officers struck a different tone. The Police Federation welcomed scrapping PCCs and pressed for the savings to be used to keep experienced officers in post and rebuild neighbourhood teams across England and Wales.

The Liberal Democrats - long critics of PCCs - claimed a “huge” win, but warned that simply handing powers to mayors “with dubious democratic mandates and little scrutiny” won’t guarantee accountability.

Closer to home, Lancashire’s PCC Clive Grunshaw said the county now needs a directly elected mayor to speak for policing, insisting commissioners had improved scrutiny and victim services. He pledged to keep pushing local priorities until the new system arrives.

Rural voices want clear guarantees too. The National Farmers’ Union urged the government to make rural crime a national priority during the transition, from tackling machinery theft to hare coursing, and to back coordinated action across departments.

There are practical questions to sort. The Home Office says victims’ and witnesses’ services will continue, but analysts note awkward boundaries where forces and combined authorities don’t neatly match - and the forthcoming white paper may even explore mergers of some of the 43 forces.

For northern readers, the test is straightforward: will this shift mean quicker response times, fewer unsolved burglaries and more visible patrols on our high streets and in our villages? We’ll be tracking promises against delivery - budgets, plans and results, not just the name on the door.