Introduction

Last week, the Home Office set out the foundations for what it describes as the most radical reform of policing in England and Wales in nearly 200 years. Published on 26 January, the Police White Paper proposes structural, workforce, and technological reforms designed to renew the model of policing by consent for the realities of the 21st century. Speaking in the House of Commons, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the Government’s reforms will ensure “the right policing in the right place”.

Changes were trailed in the days and weeks leading up to publication, including the announcement in November that Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) will be abolished in favour of a new model by 2028. But only the full document could demonstrate that real change is underway. The White Paper intends to squarely address the longstanding issues identified by the policing and law enforcement landscape.

There has been a clear and consistent consensus for reform, shared by industry. Through the evidence ADS submitted to the Public Accounts Committee’s inquiry on police productivity and our engagement with members for the ongoing Home Office consultation on biometric technologies, industry has helped shape a programme of reform that is long overdue.

Structural overhaul

The White Paper is frank that the current 43-force model in England and Wales is no longer fit for tackling modern crime. Fragmentation and bureaucracy make for a system that struggles with digital, cross-border and organised crime, eroding public confidence. The truth is that policing must manage many complex and shifting priorities. The Government sought to address both the challenges of serious and organised crime and the need to strengthen neighbourhood policing, which tackles everyday issues such as theft and shoplifting.

So, the core vision of the White Paper is a welcome, clearer split between strong, visible local policing and a more coherent national capability. Local forces will be reduced in number (following further consultation) and refocused on neighbourhood policing and everyday crime, with 13,000 additional officers supported by reduced bureaucracy and stronger local accountability.

In parallel, national responsibilities such as counter-terrorism, serious organised crime and fraud will be consolidated within a new National Police Service (NPS). The NPS will bring existing national bodies, including the College of Policing, the National Crime Agency (NCA), Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) and regional organised crime units into a single organisation led by a national police commissioner, the most senior officer in the country. It will also assume responsibility for forensics from the existing 43 forces as well as the national functions that currently held by the Metropolitan Police Force.

This streamlining of the policing landscape should improve coordination and accountability across local and national policing. Quite a lot is at stakes in the details, however, including the need to maintain the operational independence of local forces within the new model.

ADS views the greatest risk in maintaining, and ideally improving, local policing. This is where policing legitimacy and trust comes from; if you are not connected to your local officers, you are less likely to trust the police. The implementation of these structural reforms, including setting up the new National Police Service, should seek to enhance rather than move away from the British model of policing.

Procurement and technology

A major pillar of the White Paper is centralised procurement, which is expected to reduce inefficiency, ensure consistency, and enable the broader deployment of top capabilities across England and Wales. For ADS’ sectors, this offers a great promise: industry provides the ‘productivity levers’, in the words of the White Paper, that support all aspects of policing, from advanced equipment to digital forensics and emerging technologies such as biometrics.

The Government has committed £140 million of investment to back police technology, including £115 million investment over three years to scale AI and automation across all 43 forces, anchored by a new National Centre for AI in Policing called Police.AI, due to start delivering from Spring 2026. The broader and consistent adoption of emerging technologies will need to maintain a balance between responsible adoption and development at pace and scale. In its first year, Police. AI is expected to focus on CCTV analysis, case file production, and crime recording and classification. This would free officers from millions of hours of paperwork while improving the service victims and witnesses receive.

The White Paper also bets on facial recognition technology, including more Live Facial Recognition vans for town centres and high crime hotspots, which have been successfully piloted locally in the past years. This deployment will be supported by a bespoke legal framework to provide guardrails and public clarity on when, where, and how these tools can be used, the details of which will be set after a consultation for which ADS is providing written evidence.

Shaping change

The White Paper aligns with many of the issues raised by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Increasing Police Productivity, to which ADS had filed a response. It was therefore very timely that the PAC published their report in the days following the White Paper, highlighting the challenge for policing reforms to turn long-standing ambitions into delivery at pace.

The PAC report highlights that for 43 forces to run separate procurement exercises can result in inconsistencies, lack of unified standards, and slow adoption of tools that have already proved their worth elsewhere. The White Paper’s push for national standards and interoperability speaks directly to that problem. At ADS, we stress that this opportunity cannot be wasted.

Both this report, and now the White Paper, speak to familiar themes raised by ADS, including the need to reduce administrative burden through automation, the importance of interoperable national systems, and the value of earlier and more structured engagement with the supplier base to speed up adoption of proven tools. But in times of tight budgets, realising these reforms will require better partnerships with suppliers, funding certainty, and the appropriate governance. The White Paper sets out much needed ambition, but accountability within the Home Office will be key and industry will require clarity on both the timeframe to get there, and on the many details yet to be set out after more consultation.

Conclusion

While the journey to centralised procurement, mandatory national standards and genuine interoperability might be complex at times, it offers the prospect to industry of clearer demand signals and a more consistent innovation pathway. Industry can provide the capabilities that address public safety needs in a strictly regulated environment, and stands ready to work with law enforcement on the implementation of centralised procurement.

The direction of travel for the Security and Resilience sector is clear: policing technology is moving toward national standards, national coordination, and measurable outcomes. To achieve momentum will require long-term strategic partnerships between law enforcement and suppliers to be able to meet the scale, assurance and governance expectations set out in the White Paper.