Independent editorial summary — not the official statute text. Read the official version on legislation.gov.uk.
Summary
The Policing and Crime Act 2017 made wide-ranging reforms to policing and criminal justice in England and Wales. It placed a duty on the emergency services to collaborate (Part 1) and enabled police and crime commissioners to take on fire and rescue governance (Part 5); reformed the police complaints and discipline system, renaming the Independent Police Complaints Commission as the Independent Office for Police Conduct and creating a 'super-complaints' mechanism (Part 2); and reformed police powers (Part 4), most notably by introducing statutory time limits on pre-charge bail (an initial 28 days, extendable) and changing how vulnerable people detained under the Mental Health Act are treated. It also provided for the disregard and posthumous pardon of historical convictions for now-abolished consensual homosexual offences ('Turing's Law').
Key Points
- Statutory limits on pre-charge bail — an initial 28 days, extendable on authorisation (Part 4)
- Police 'super-complaints' mechanism for systemic concerns (s.25)
- IPCC reconstituted and renamed the Independent Office for Police Conduct (s.33)
- Disregards and posthumous pardons for abolished consensual homosexual offences — 'Turing's Law' (ss.164-165)
- Emergency-services collaboration duty (Part 1) and PCC fire-and-rescue governance (Part 5)
- Reforms to firearms regulation (Part 6) and financial-sanctions enforcement (Part 8)