Police and crime commissioners (PCCs) are set to be abolished, the Home Office has announced.

There are 41 PCCs in England and Wales, who oversee local police forces and are meant to hold their chief constables to account.

37 of them are individual elected officials, while the rest are part of mayoral offices, as is the case across most of Yorkshire.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said PCCs have been ‘a failed experiment’.

“I will introduce new reforms, so police are accountable to their local mayoralties or local councils.

“The savings will fund more neighbourhood police on the beat across the country, fighting crime and protecting our communities.

“I would like to recognise the efforts of all current and former Police and Crime Commissioners, and thank them.

“These individuals served their communities and will continue to do so until they have completed their current terms.”

Commissioners will remain in office until the end of their current terms in 2028.

The government has said the move will save at least £100 million by the end of this parliament in 2029.

PCCs were first introduced in 2012 by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government to replace police authorities and increase accountability of police forces.

However, critics – especially police chiefs – have claimed the elected officials frequently tried to interfere and were ineffective at their job.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Thursday, the policing minister Sarah Jones said: “The model has failed to live up to expectations.

“It has not delivered what it was set up to achieve public understanding of, and engagement with our police and crime commissioners remains low.”

She added that less than a quarter of voters turned out to vote in the PCC elections last year, and two in five people are unaware they even exist.”

Turnout for the 2024 elections was extremely low, averaging 23.2% across England and Wales.

The highest turnout was in Northumbria with 32.3%, while Gwent in Wales had the lowest with 15.5%.

Their main responsibilities include setting an annual budget, appointing chief constables, producing a five-year policing plan, and assessing the performance of their force against that plan.

Some commissioners also oversee the operation of their local fire and rescue services.

Once they are abolished, oversight powers will be transferred to metro mayors.

In areas that don’t have a mayor, the powers will be given to local councils via a policing committee.

The position has already been merged into several mayoral authorities in recent years.

South Yorkshire abolished the role in 2024, handing over the role to Mayor Oliver Coppard.

The Mayors of West Yorkshire and York and North Yorkshire have held the powers since their introduction in 2021 and 2024 respectively.

Humberside Police still has a separate PCC from the two mayoral authorities within its jurisdiction – East Riding and Lincolnshire.

This comes alongside a series of local government reforms also planned by the government.