Police forces across England and Wales will be mandated to attend serious crime scenes within 15 minutes in urban areas as part of a monumental £18.4 billion shake-up designed to restore neighbourhood policing and place more officers on visible patrols. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is poised to unveil what she describes as the most comprehensive overhaul of policing in the service's two-century history on Monday, introducing stringent national targets for emergency response times.
Strict New Response Time Targets
Under the forthcoming reforms, police will be required to respond to serious 999 calls within 15 minutes in cities and within 20 minutes in rural locations. Additionally, forces will be expected to answer 999 emergency calls within ten seconds, addressing widespread concerns about inconsistent and patchy response data that has allowed some constabularies to operate with significantly slower reaction times without facing consequences.
Consequences for Underperformance
The new system will establish clear accountability measures, with police forces failing to meet these standards facing potential intervention from the Home Secretary. Experts from top-performing forces could be dispatched to assist underperforming constabularies in improving their operational effectiveness. Ms Mahmood emphasised the urgency of these changes, stating: 'Everyday crimes are rising across the country, and too often there appear to be no meaningful consequences for offenders.'
'When citizens report crimes, they frequently face waits of hours or even days for a police response. By the time officers eventually arrive at the scene, both perpetrators and potential witnesses have often disappeared,' the Home Secretary added. 'My commitment is to restore genuine neighbourhood policing and significantly increase patrols within communities to apprehend criminals and reduce crime rates.'
Addressing an 'Epidemic' of Offending
These reforms arrive amidst what government ministers characterise as an 'epidemic' of everyday offending that continues to blight local communities across the nation. Official statistics reveal alarming increases in certain crime categories, with shoplifting soaring by 72 percent since 2010 and street theft rising by 58 percent during the same period.
Freeing Officers from Administrative Burdens
Decades of accumulating paperwork, reliance on outdated IT systems, and the restrictive Officer Maintenance Grant—which has compelled forces to protect headcount at all costs—have resulted in thousands of uniformed officers being confined to back-office roles rather than frontline duties. The Government has announced plans to slash this bureaucratic red tape that currently bogs down police resources.
A significant element of the reform package involves scrapping the Officer Maintenance Grant entirely, which will provide police forces with the operational freedom to redeploy approximately 12,600 trained officers currently working in support roles back to frontline policing duties. To further overhaul administrative systems, the government is implementing measures to reduce unnecessary paperwork, including work already underway to minimise the recording of non-crime incidents.
Comprehensive Reform Package
Ms Mahmood is expected to outline these sweeping reforms in a white paper titled 'From local to national: a new model for policing,' which will detail the strategic vision for modernising police services. Alongside the structural and operational changes, police forces will receive the substantial £18.4 billion funding package specifically designated to restore neighbourhood policing, enhance crime reduction efforts, and improve criminal apprehension rates.
Support from Community Organisations
John Hayward-Cripps, chief executive of Neighbourhood Watch, welcomed the government's initiative, commenting: 'There exists a very fundamental expectation that police will respond when citizens report crimes, and respond promptly when those crimes are serious. The Government introducing clear national standards and, crucially, providing the necessary resources to meet them represents a significant and welcome step forward for community safety across England and Wales.'
The comprehensive reform package aims to address systemic issues that have hampered police effectiveness while responding to growing public concern about visible policing and timely responses to criminal incidents in communities nationwide.
