The Home Secretary is set to unveil major policing reforms this month, with a white paper arguing that England and Wales’s 43-force structure is fundamentally unfit for tackling contemporary criminal activity.
Government briefing documents describe the existing system as outdated and incapable of protecting communities from increasingly sophisticated offenders.
The paper contends that if ministers were designing a policing framework from scratch today, they would not replicate the current arrangement.
Criminal networks are exploiting technological advances, particularly artificial intelligence, at a pace that local constabularies cannot match.
Forces are finding it difficult to recruit specialist talent and acquire appropriate tools to disrupt offenders and safeguard the public.
The nature of the current model means some serious crimes go unpunished, according to the Government’s assessment.
More than nine in ten criminal cases now feature a digital component, whether through electronic devices or social media platforms, yet individual forces struggle to develop the expertise needed to process enormous volumes of electronic evidence.
Fraud has become the single largest category of crime, accounting for 44 per cent of offences recorded in the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
Government briefing documents describe the existing system as outdated
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PA
Last year saw over four million fraud incidents, representing a 14 per cent increase on the previous twelve months.
Victims are frequently targeted by overseas scammers operating online, with no regard for police force boundaries.
Recorded sexual offences have climbed by 95 per cent between 2015/2016 and 2024/2025.
During the past year alone, one in eight women experienced domestic abuse, sexual assault or stalking.
Shabana Mahmood is planning a major overhaul
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PAThe current system divides responsibility for serious, cross-border and technology-enabled offending among four separate bodies: Counter-terror Policing, the National Crime Agency, Regional Organised Crime Units, and City of London Police as the national lead for fraud and cybercrime.
These crime categories are becoming increasingly interlinked, with states such as Russia now using serious organised crime groups to conduct sabotage operations across Britain and Europe.
A force-by-force approach hampers the sharing of intelligence and undermines opportunities for coordinated national operations against offenders.
At present, approximately 20,000 devices sit in queues awaiting specialist digital forensic examination, leaving investigations stalled and victims waiting.
Constabularies frequently procure IT systems that cannot communicate with one another, locking away data and preventing a unified national response to complex threats.
The Government has already launched a new Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, deploying the full power of the state to ensure perpetrators cannot evade justice.
A comprehensive Fraud Strategy is expected early this year, aimed at both protecting consumers and dismantling criminal networks.
Counter-terrorism policing has received an additional £140 million in funding.
The UK’s intelligence services have been allocated nearly £500 million more, bringing their resources to record levels.
The National Crime Agency has also benefited from increased investment.
Smaller constabularies face particular difficulties building specialist cyber, digital forensic and fraud units, forcing them to redirect resources away from local priorities.
An estimated 90 per cent of police technology spending goes towards maintaining legacy systems rather than adopting innovations such as facial recognition and artificial intelligence.
