The Combined Authorities (Overview and Scrutiny Committees, Access to Information and Audit Committees) (Amendment) Order 2026 makes a narrow but important change to the governance rules around England's devolved institutions. According to the statutory instrument published on legislation.gov.uk, the Order was made at 12.05 pm on 14 May 2026, laid before Parliament at 3.00 pm the same day, and comes into force on 4 June 2026. The amendment updates the 2017 Order that already deals with scrutiny, access to information and audit committee arrangements for combined authorities. Its purpose is specific: to identify which remuneration panels must be used when a combined authority or combined county authority considers allowances for commissioners appointed by a mayor.
The legal background comes from Schedule 3 to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026. As the Explanatory Note records, that Act inserted Schedule 5BA into the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 and Schedule 2A into the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. Those schedules apply to commissioners who may be appointed by the mayor of a combined authority or combined county authority to assist in the exercise of mayoral functions. Once that office exists in statute, a related question follows: what is the lawful route for setting any allowance attached to the role.
The 2026 Order answers that question by inserting a new article 17 into the 2017 framework. In plain terms, an independent remuneration panel established by a combined authority or combined county authority under article 16(1)(b) is now specified as the "relevant remuneration panel" for the commissioner allowance provisions. The drafting points to different parent legislation depending on the body involved, but the practical result is aligned. For combined authorities, the panel is recognised for the purposes of paragraph 7(4) of Schedule 5BA to the 2009 Act. For combined county authorities, it is recognised for the purposes of paragraph 7(4) of Schedule 2A to the 2023 Act.
That designation matters because the allowance scheme cannot simply be set at mayoral or authority discretion. The Explanatory Note states that a combined authority or combined county authority may make a scheme for the payment of allowances to commissioners only after it has considered a report published by a relevant remuneration panel. The same note also makes clear that the panel's recommendations place a ceiling on payment. The allowances provided for in the scheme must not exceed the panel's recommendations. In practice, the authority may decide to pay less, or not to pay an allowance at all, but it cannot lawfully approve a higher amount.
For devolution governance, the amendment is significant because it places new commissioner roles inside an existing accountability structure rather than creating a separate pay-setting route. Independent remuneration panels were already part of the 2017 Order. This instrument brings those panels into the commissioner framework created by the 2026 devolution legislation. That should give combined authorities and combined county authorities a clearer line of assurance when new mayoral support roles are established. It also gives members, scrutiny officers and the public a more intelligible chain of decision-making: panel report first, allowance scheme second, with a statutory cap linked to the panel's recommendation.
The change is administrative, but it has immediate operational value. Any authority intending to appoint commissioners and pay allowances after 4 June 2026 will need to make sure the recognised independent remuneration panel process has been used before the scheme is approved. That is likely to matter most for authorities expanding mayoral capacity as devolution arrangements mature. The Order does not create the commissioner role by itself, and it does not require allowances to be paid. What it does is fix the route by which any such payment must be tested and authorised.
The instrument formally extends to England and Wales, although its subject matter is local government arrangements for English combined authorities and combined county authorities. It was signed on behalf of the Secretary of State by Taylor of Stevenage, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Explanatory Note says no full impact assessment has been prepared because no significant effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is expected. Even so, the Order closes a practical gap in the post-devolution statute book. From 4 June 2026, commissioner allowances will sit within a defined remuneration panel process rather than a less clearly specified local arrangement.