Campaigners say creation of cross-border police force is a ‘threat’ to the Welsh language

Stephen Price

A Welsh language campaign group has warned that creating cross-border police forces between Wales and England would have a damaging impact on the Welsh language and communities in Wales.

Their concerns follow reports that the UK Government has commissioned an independent review of police force structures across Wales and England.

In January 2026, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced the government’s intention to overhaul policing in England and Wales by creating a new National Police Service to fight the most complex crimes and “dramatically reducing” the existing 43 local forces.

The future structure of policing in Wales will come under scrutiny next month when the country’s four Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) appear before MPs to discuss proposed reforms that could see their roles abolished.

The Welsh Affairs Committee will question the commissioners on July 8 as part of an inquiry into the UK Government’s plans for policing in England and Wales.

The session follows the publication of a Government White Paper in January which proposed abolishing PCCs, the elected figures responsible for overseeing police budgets, priorities and performance.

In England, ministers have suggested many of their responsibilities would be transferred to elected regional mayors or council leaders. However, no equivalent arrangements have been outlined for Wales, raising questions about how Welsh police forces would be held accountable.

The White Paper also proposed reducing the number of territorial police forces across England and Wales, although there has been little indication of what that could mean for Wales’s four forces.

In a letter to the chair of the review, Lord Hogan-Howe, Cymdeithas yr Iaith has raised concerns about the potential consequences of the review’s outcomes and their impact on the Welsh language and Welsh communities.

Cymdeithas is also calling on the chair to engage with Welsh Government ministers to ensure that they are able to contribute to the review.

Aled Thomas, chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s language rights group, said: “Wales is a country in its own right, with its unique culture, character, and language. Merging police forces across Wales and England would completely disregard this. The police forces of this country must be accountable to its people and communities.

“At present, police forces in Wales operate under the Welsh Language Measure 2011, which means they are required to comply with Welsh language standards. Moving to a cross-border structure would complicate these arrangements and risk undermining people’s right to access an essential public service through the medium of Welsh.

“It’s also important to remember that the new Welsh Government was elected following promises to work towards the devolution of more justice and policing powers. Merging police forces across the border would undermine this and would be a wholly undemocratic act.

“It is therefore essential that Welsh Government ministers are given a voice in the review process, and that immediate assurances are given that no police forces will be created that would operate on both sides of the border.”

Inquiry

The inquiry is expected to examine whether policing should be devolved to the Welsh Government, alongside discussions on violence against women and girls, the use of facial recognition technology and wider questions about police accountability.

The committee will also seek views on whether Wales should retain four separate police forces or move towards a different structure.

Ruth Jones MP, chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee, said: “Next month’s session is an important opportunity to delve into what the UK Government’s proposed reforms could mean for policing in Wales.

“If PCCs are to be abolished, it is essential that any new arrangements ensure police forces in Wales remain clearly accountable to the public and that communities continue to have a strong voice in shaping policing priorities.”

Ms Jones said MPs would also explore whether Wales’s current policing structure remained the most effective model.

She added: “We also want to explore views on the optimal number of forces for Wales and the importance of striking a balance between efficiency and preserving a strong understanding of local needs.”

Written submissions

Ahead of the evidence session, the committee has issued a call for written submissions from academics and policy experts.

Among the questions being posed are how police forces in Wales should be held to account if PCCs are abolished, what lessons can be learned from the PCC model, whether the number of Welsh police forces should change, and the arguments for and against devolving policing powers to Cardiff Bay.

The issue of policing devolution has been debated in Wales for several years, with supporters arguing it would bring policing into line with devolved services such as health, education and local government.

Opponents have raised concerns about the cost and complexity of restructuring policing arrangements and the potential impact on cross-border cooperation.

“Takeover”

Chief constables of smaller forces will be worried about a takeover by larger neighbours under the UK Government’s proposed police reforms, a Welsh police chief has said.

However Chief Constable Mark Hobrough has vowed to do his best to retain the service provided to residents and said he is “passionate” about keeping the identity of Gwent Police and its “strong link” with local communities.

Gwent is the smallest force by geographical area in Wales, and with just 1,549 constables one of the smallest by number of officers among the 43. The chief constable, who was appointed in December 2024, admitted it and other similar forces could be vulnerable when the review begins this summer.

“I think all chief constables of smaller forces will have shared concerns, like I have, of not being absorbed into greater areas because one of my big priorities is to retain that local link with our communities,” Mr Hobrough said in reply to whether he feared Gwent could be seen as too small.

“For my term of office, for sure, I’ll be making sure that we do our very best to ensure that service that we give to our Gwent communities is retained. There are obviously concerns people will have, both in the community and within our own workforce, and part of my messaging, is ‘please concentrate on providing that best service we can for the communities of Gwent’.”

He added: “This is a formalisation of that structure because we’ve seen that now in 2025 for immigration and asylum, we’ve seen in 2024 with the dreadful disorder that followed the tragic incident in Southport, we can reasonably predict, with community cohesion tension right now, that there is the need to facilitate lawful protest always but to do that whereby there is no risks to the public.

“I think it’s fair to say we can reasonably predict that mobilisation is something that we’re going to have to do on an ongoing basis.”

Letter in full

The letter from Cmdeithas yr Iaith’s Aled Thomas reads: “We write to you today to raise some observations on behalf of Cymdeithas yr Iaith regarding your independent review of police force structures across Wales and England.

“Cymdeithas yr Iaith is a movement which campaigns non-violently for the Welsh language and Wales’ communities as part of the international movement for rights and freedoms. As part of our work, we strive to reinforce the rights associated with the Welsh language and Wales’ communities. We are concerned over the possible implications of your review into police force structures in Wales and England, and its impact on the Welsh language and Wales’ communities.

“We are concerned about the possibility that your review will lead to the creation of cross-border police forces between Wales and England. We believe that Wales should be recognised as a single unit that is entirely separate from England, within the review. Wales is a country in and of itself, with a distinct culture, character and language. We believe that the possibility of cross-border police forces would disregard this entirely. Particularly, we are concerned with the impact these types of forces would have on the Welsh language. Police forces in Wales currently operate under the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, which means they are required to abide by the Welsh language standards. The creation of cross-border police forces would complicate the delivery of the Measure for police forces, and would pose a threat to the rights of the people of Wales to access public services, such as the police, in the medium of Welsh.

“As stated, it is essential that Wales’ distinctiveness is represented in the review. We therefore welcome the inclusion of the principle within the terms of reference relating to the need for strong accountability at the local and regional levels. The unique nature of Wales must feed into this principle, to ensure the accountability of police forces in Wales to the people and communities of Wales.

“We welcome the plans of the Chair to engage with the Welsh Government, in conducting the review, and we encourage the Chair to engage with the new Welsh Government, if you have already done so previously with the outgoing administration. It is crucial that Ministers elected by the people of Wales have an input into the review, particularly as they were elected on the back of commitments to seek further devolution of justice and policing. We urge the Chair to further engage with other key stakeholders from Wales, such as academics, community representatives, victims and their families, and so on, in order to reflect the distinctiveness of Wales that we have discussed.

“We are also concerned that the outcome of the review will have unintended consequences on constitutional matters. We understand that constitutional matters in relation to justice and policing are outside of the remit of the work of this review. Despite this, we believe that a recommendation to establish cross-border police forces would undermine the devolution of these powers to Wales. Unifying police forces across the border would make it more difficult to devolve more powers to Senedd Cymru, the elected body of the country, in this area.

“Considering again that the Welsh Government was elected on a manifesto which commits to press ahead with further devolution in this area, we would interpret any suggestion of cross-border police forces as an utterly anti-democratic action.

“Thank you for reading our observations, we hope they will provide you with some support in your work as part of this review.”

In response, the Welsh Government shared: “Our Ministers will be meeting with Lord Hogan Howe, the head of the review into force structures, in the coming weeks when we will be pressing the case for the full devolution of policing.

“We will also use that meeting to emphasise the importance of not undermining the rights of Welsh speakers to access vital public services in their own language as a consequence of any decisions taken by the UK Government.”