Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2025, to Question 96551, on Police: accountability, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of adding district-level licensing authorities in two-tier areas to the new Policing and Crime Boards.

The Government intends to legislate as soon as Parliamentary time allows to create Policing and Crime Boards to replace Police and Crime Commissioners where it is not possible for policing functions to be held by a Strategic Authority Mayor. These changes will take effect in May 2028.

Councils in two-tier areas are currently undergoing local government reorganisation, and the Government is on track to deliver unitary local government in all areas by 2028. Therefore, no district-level authorities will exist from that point.