The Home Office has made the Crime and Policing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 3 and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026, signed by Minister of State Sarah Jones on 2 September 2026. The instrument is the third commencement set under the Act and brings further provisions into force on 21 September, 29 September, 26 October and 29 October 2026. In practice, the regulations set the operational timetable for measures already enacted in primary legislation rather than creating fresh policy on their own. The explanatory note also records that no standalone impact assessment has been produced for this instrument because impact assessments were published for the Bill and updated when it became the Crime and Policing Act 2026 on 29 April 2026. (policyindex.ai)
The first tranche, on 21 September 2026, is partly procedural and partly operational. It commences limited provisions linked to child criminal exploitation prevention orders and court rules, but the most immediate operative change is the start of sections 205 to 213 and Schedule 25 on barred and advisory lists. According to the Act’s Explanatory Notes, those sections require law enforcement employers to check barred lists before employing or appointing people to specified policing roles, and to check advisory lists when making recruitment and role-change decisions. Schedule 25 extends comparable arrangements to the British Transport Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary, National Crime Agency and Ministry of Defence Police, widening the list-checking regime beyond territorial police forces in England and Wales. (policyindex.ai)
On 29 September 2026, the regulations commence sections 113 to 115 on other sexual offences, the remainder of section 204 on police appeals tribunals, and section 246 on extradition in conviction cases. The Explanatory Notes say section 113 broadens the exposure offence so it also covers exposure intended to humiliate, and exposure for sexual gratification where the person is reckless as to whether others will suffer alarm, distress or humiliation. Section 114 replaces the narrower offence of intercourse with an animal with a broader offence of sexual activity with an animal, while section 115 replaces the existing necrophilia provision with a broader offence of sexual activity with a corpse. Part of section 204 was already in force on Royal Assent for rule-making, and this commencement brings the remaining appeal framework into effect. (policyindex.ai)
The extradition change is the main transitional point in the instrument. Section 246 amends sections 20 and 85 of the Extradition Act 2003 so that, where a person was convicted abroad in their absence, a UK judge may proceed if the person would be entitled to a retrial or appeal even where that entitlement depends on the requesting state court deciding that the person was not deliberately absent. Regulation 6 then preserves the previous position for hearings arising from arrests made before 29 September 2026, for both category 1 and category 2 territories. For courts and practitioners, the threshold date is therefore the date of arrest rather than the date of hearing. (legislation.gov.uk)
The most significant operational changes for councils, police forces and landlords arrive on 26 October 2026, when the anti-social behaviour package in Part 1 of the Act starts. That includes respect orders, youth injunctions, housing injunctions, longer maximum periods for certain directions and notices, higher fixed penalty notice ceilings, closure powers for registered social housing providers, and a new review role for local policing bodies. The Explanatory Notes describe respect orders as a new court power for adults whose conduct has caused, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress; breach is a criminal offence. Youth injunctions and housing injunctions continue the existing civil model for under-18s and for housing-related nuisance, while pre-commencement civil injunction cases remain under the old regime. Fixed penalty notices for breaches of public spaces protection orders and community protection notices can rise from £100 to £500, and accredited community safety staff may issue them. (policyindex.ai)
The 26 October package also changes who can act and who can seek further review. Schedule 2 allows registered social housing providers to issue closure notices and apply for closure orders using the existing statutory test, giving social landlords a direct role in the closure regime where premises are linked to nuisance or disorder. Section 6 and Schedule 3 strengthen the anti-social behaviour case review framework by requiring local policing bodies to promote awareness, publish procedures and carry out further reviews where the statutory threshold appears to have been met. In territorial terms, these anti-social behaviour chapters are England and Wales measures, so implementation work will fall most heavily on councils, police and crime commissioners, social landlords and policing bodies operating there. (legislation.gov.uk)
The final commencement date is 29 October 2026. On that day, sections 151 to 156 and Schedule 16 create offences around SIM farms and the possession or supply of other specified articles used to facilitate fraud by electronic communications, alongside powers of entry and search. The Act’s Explanatory Notes define a SIM farm as a device capable of using five or more SIM cards simultaneously or interchangeably to send texts or place calls at scale. The same date also activates sections 197 and 198 on police misconduct investigations, allowing criminal proceedings in some cases before a final report is complete and tightening the referral threshold to the Director of Public Prosecutions so that it turns on a realistic prospect of conviction. Those police investigation changes apply only where the complaint was made, or the matter came to the attention of the Independent Office for Police Conduct, on or after the commencement day. (policyindex.ai)
The territorial pattern is not uniform across the instrument. The anti-social behaviour and sexual-offence provisions commenced on 26 October and 29 September are England and Wales measures, while the barred-list provisions, the extradition change and the SIM farm offences extend across the UK. For institutions, the task between now and the October dates is mainly administrative: courts need procedural readiness, law enforcement employers need list-checking and recruitment protocols, councils and housing providers need revised anti-social behaviour workflows, and oversight bodies need review and publication arrangements in place before the new duties begin. (legislation.gov.uk)