What does the pledge mean?

In April 2025 the government introduced its Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee (NPG), as promised in both its 2024 election manifesto and its subsequent Plan for Change, published in December 2024.

The NPG performance framework, published in April 2025, consists of five ‘pillars’ based on the aims set out in the Plan for Change, each of which we’re monitoring separately.

The second pillar, “community-led policing”, pledged: “A named, contactable officer for every neighbourhood, responsive to local problems. Residents and local businesses will be able to have a say on the police’s priorities for their area.”

The framework set out three “headline” measures against which progress on this pillar will be publicly monitored:

• Proportion of neighbourhoods with a named police officer, contactable online by the public.
• Up-to-date (in the last 3 months) neighbourhood policing priorities.
• Proportion of the public who have seen or heard about what the police are doing to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour in the local area, as measured by the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).

The framework also committed to producing a “dashboard” showing progress on these and other headline measures—we’ve asked the Home Office when this will be live, but have received no response.

What progress has been made?

We’re currently rating this pledge as “in progress” because while the government says the first two measures have been achieved, it’s too early to know how the proportion of the public who have seen or heard about what the police are doing in their local area has changed since this pillar was established.

In a press release published in April 2025, the government announced a number of commitments made as part of the NPG that would be in place by July 2025, including that residents would have “named, contactable officers to tackle the issues facing their communities.”

In August 2025, the National Police Chiefs Council said that this commitment had now been achieved. It said: “Every community now has named, and contactable officers dedicated to addressing local issues, with neighbourhood policing teams (NPTs) spending the majority of their time in communities, providing visible patrols, engaging with residents and businesses, and offering regular opportunities for the public to raise concerns through beat meetings.”

In a letter to the chair of the home affairs select committee published in January 2026, policing minister Sarah Jones MP confirmed that “Every neighbourhood across England and Wales now has named and contactable neighbourhood officers”, “Forces are now ensuring regular beat meetings are taking place, providing local communities and businesses with a direct platform to shape policing priorities in their area” and that “Police forces are required to ensure they are publishing up to date information online about their neighbourhood policing teams, including local priorities and how communities and businesses can contribute to shaping them.”

Information showing details of named officers and up-to-date information about priorities for each local area does not appear to have been centralised—we’ve asked the Home Office if it will be included in the “dashboard” monitoring wider NPG progress.

According to the latest CSEW perceptions data, as of March 2025 15.2% of people aged 16 or over had seen or heard about police actions to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour in the last 12 months.

We don’t expect to have data covering the first year since this pledge was made until July 2026.