Number of police forces to be slashed in England and Wales underneath new plan to be unveiled by Shabana Mahmood subsequent week

The number of police forces in England and Wales is to be cut ‘significantly’ as part of a major shake-up, government sources have confirmed for the first time.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will set out a ‘radical blueprint’ for police reform in a White Paper to be published on Monday.

The existing 43 police forces will undergo a series of mergers in the most wide-ranging changes since the 1960s.

It is not yet known how many police forces will remain, but it is widely expected to be as few as 10.

Each new regional force will focus on complex investigations such as those into murders or organised crime.

But within each new larger force there will be ‘local policing areas’ created to focus on community issues such as shoplifting, mobile phone theft and anti-social behaviour, sources confirmed.

The Home Office believes the mergers will save money on backroom functions which can then be redirected to neighbourhood policing.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will next week unveil plans to slash the number of police forces in England and Wales in the biggest policing shake-up since the 1960s

A government source said: ‘As part of these reforms, the Government will radically change the structure of policing.

‘First, it will pledge to significantly reduce the number of police forces by the end of the next parliament.

‘These forces will specialise in tackling serious and organised crime and complex investigations such as homicides, drugs and county lines.

‘Second, within these new forces, Local Policing Areas will be established for each town, city or borough.

‘These teams will operate closer to their local community than the current 43 forces do and will be tasked with delivering exceptional neighbourhood policing.

‘They will fight local crime, such as shoplifting, drug dealing, phone theft, and the anti-social behaviour, that are blighting our high streets and communities.’

An independent review will be set up to determine the new number forces and their ‘precise operational design’, the source said.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘There is no evidence that ripping up local police forces will cut crime or improve performance.

‘Top-down reorganisation risks undermining efforts to fight crime, inevitably leading to centralised control that will hit towns and villages across the country hardest.

‘This is a cover for Labour’s failure to deliver on policing and their inability to get officer numbers, response times, or even funding on track.’

He added: ‘The biggest force, the Met, has the lowest crime-solving rates and falling police numbers. Big is not necessarily better.’

Earlier this week the Daily Mail reported how the number of police officers in frontline roles has plummeted under Labour to the lowest level in six years.

New regional forces will be created, which will contain ‘local policing areas’ in each city, town or borough to concentrate on neighbourhood crime and other grassroots issues

Official Home Office data revealed there were 67,085 officers in ‘visible frontline operational’ roles in England and Wales at the end of March last year.

It was the lowest since 2018-19 when the total fell to 63,000.

At that point, the decline prompted the then Conservative government to launch a drive to recruit 20,000 additional officers.

The Tories met their pledge in 2023 and the number of officers in visible frontline roles peaked at just under 77,000 in March that year, but has since spiralled downwards.

Concern has been raised that Ms Mahmood’s policing shake-up will come with huge initial costs and absorb vast amounts of senior officers’ time for years.

It also means dozens of chief constables and other top brass are likely to become redundant, amid increasing frustration in Whitehall at the police’s ability to respond to modern crime patterns.

The chief constables of the largest city forces – such as the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) – are likely to be among the clear winners in any reorganisation, as they swallow up neighbouring smaller patches.

Other areas, such as the shire counties, are likely to witness bitter competition among chief constables as they jostle to win the top job in much larger forces.

Currently the smallest forces – excluding the City of London Police – are Warwickshire, Lincolnshire and Wiltshire with about 1,100 or 1,200 officers each, while the largest are West Midlands with 5,000, West Yorkshire with 6,000, GMP with 8,000 and the Met with 33,000.

The last major reform of policing structures saw a series of amalgamations between 1964 to 1966, with the number fall from 158 forces to the existing 43 forces.

Further mergers have been discussed by police organisations for the last 20 years.

The Home Office launched a plan to reduce the total to 24 forces in 2005 but it was dropped by then home secretary John Reid the following year.