Blunkett Commission Demands Overhaul of Police Leadership
The Police Leadership Commission, chaired by Lord Blunkett with Lord Herbert, found leadership across the 43 forces of England and Wales “not consistently of a high enough standard”: no force is rated outstanding for leadership, chief constable posts often attract a single suitable candidate, and eight serving or former chiefs are under disciplinary processes. It recommends a National Academy of Police Leadership and a new senior constable rank. Policing minister Sarah Jones said the findings will shape the government’s “programme of police reform”.
A cross-party commission — Labour’s Blunkett, the Conservatives’ Herbert — describing “extraordinarily worrying evidence requiring profound change” gives whoever becomes home secretary this month the cover for structural reform the 43-force model has resisted for decades. The evidence base is broad: a survey of two thousand sergeants and inspectors, four hundred submissions, and a sergeants’ exam pass rate below fifty per cent standing in for the pipeline problem. The formal Home Office response is due in the autumn — from a government that does not yet exist. Watch which recommendations Burnham’s home secretary adopts, and whether chief constable recruitment opens to wider fields.