After a weekend of headlines heralding a new ‘British FBI’ and the biggest shake-up of policing for decades, the Policing White Paper was finally published on Monday afternoon.
And, while more political news managed to steal some of the attention away, the plans announced were meaty. The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood called them: “the most significant changes to how policing works in this country in nearly 200 years”. NPCC Chair Gavin Stephens said: “We are grateful to ministers for clearly listening to the views of policing and putting together a package of ambitious and far-reaching measures which reflect the voice of our service.”
Whatever your perspective, it’s clear that these are huge reforms. They will take years to be fully implemented – and even longer than that to see the full potential benefits unlocked – but they lived up to the hype. This really is a huge shake-up of policing. So, what does the Policing White Paper – ‘From local to national: a new model for policing’ – actually include?
The new National Police Service
By far the biggest change was the establishment of the National Police Service (NPS). Set up as a new national police force, it will be responsible for fighting “the most complex and serious crimes” and will be led by a Commissioner who will be “the most senior police officer in the country.” (Leapwise are currently working as part of a bigger team in the Home Office on this – so, to be clear, we’re only summarising what the Home Secretary has said publicly throughout this blog.)
The NPS is set to be big. It will eventually absorb many of the largest national policing bodies that already exist in the system – from the College of Policing through to the National Crime Agency, as well as Counter Terrorism Policing. It would therefore be more than just an ‘enabling’ centre (i.e. managing things like IT or commercial functions) but a truly ‘operational’ beast, delivering big parts of policing. It’s at the maximalist end of the spectrum that our Managing Director Tom Gash talked about in his previous national police centre paper.
More specifically, the White Paper argues that the NPS will be able to do four main things. It will: (1) provide strategic leadership for the policing, (2) ensure a more consistent service to the public through stronger national standards, (3) provide better enabling and support services, and (4) improve efforts to tackle terrorism and SOC. In other words, it’s an attempt to provide a much more coordinated strategic centre for UK policing – one that, it is argued, will deliver major benefits for the public.
Regional forces
It’s been hinted for a while that a major consolidation of the existing 43-force model might be on the cards, too. The arguments for this are well-known by now. A fragmented system – where things are often done differently in every individual force – is inefficient and ineffective, especially when criminal threats are increasingly untethered to geographical boundaries. By contrast, others claim that losing our more localised model could lead to policing drifting away from its neighbourhood and community focus.
The White Paper proposes a less radical first step than some might have expected. An independent review of police structures will be established immediately to report in the summer. It will be tasked with examining “the optimal configuration of regional police forces and the best approach to implementation” under the leadership of an independent chair.
As the document itself acknowledges, force mergers won’t be easy, and a “co-design” approach is what’s set out in the Home Secretary’s plans. With the review coming, it’s a case of ‘watch this space’ on this one!
New powers
Some of the developments under this heading aren’t actually news. During the extended controversy over West Midlands Police’s now ex-chief constable, the Home Secretary publicly shared that she would restore the power – abandoned under Theresa May – for ministers to remove police chiefs on “performance grounds”.
This followed the news (in late 2025) that PCCs will be abolished by 2028, viewed by many as about embedding more national rather than local oversight over policing.
The White Paper significantly strengthens powers and infrastructure around police performance. With a new Home Office Police Performance Improvement Unit (and framework) created, forces will soon be scored across a four-tier performance system. Forces placed in ‘level 4 (special measures)’ – the worst tier – will see “intervention powers [used] to direct appropriate support or interventions in collaboration with the sector”. The language of the document implies a more interventionist mindset generally.
Leadership and workforce
A new licence to practise is also being introduced for police officers, matching a recommendation made several years ago by the Police Foundation. The details on this one are fairly light as things stand, though it will mean officers are required to renew this licence “so they learn new skills as criminal techniques evolve.”
Other big changes include a new national workforce strategy to be created by the NPS, as well as a range of efforts to boost leadership diversity and skills such as through a new specialist pathway into policing. This sounds likely to involve renewing various direct entry schemes that have been trialled in the past.
Technology
On technology, the big headline was the creation of a new National Centre for AI in Policing – to be called ‘Police.AI’. This will be provided with investment of £115 million over three years to enable more effective scale-up of police AI as well as a “public facing registry of AI being deployed by police forces and the steps they have taken to ensure the reliability of tools before being used for operations.”
In addition, there will be funding for a major uplift in live facial recognition (LFR) vans – with 40 more being paid for by the Home Office. This will be part of a “nationally coordinated LFR capability”. If you’re interested in the rationale for this, you might be in luck. Our paper from October last year – “LFR: The case for coordinated national expansion” – couldn’t really be any more relevant to this announcement.
What Happens Now?
For organisations across policing, justice, and public safety, there will be an understandable mix of uncertainty and excitement about these genuinely transformative changes. The opportunities and risks facing leaders have just stepped up a level.
If you’re looking for help navigating any of these changes, we’re always happy to have a conversation. Just reach out to our team directly by clicking the link below.