Ministers have brought the first part of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 into force. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 (Commencement No. 1 and Saving) Regulations 2026 were made on 17 June 2026 and came into force on 18 June 2026. According to the text published on legislation.gov.uk, the instrument activates section 63 of the 2026 Act only so far as that section relates to paragraphs 12 to 19 of Schedule 30. This is therefore a tightly drawn commencement measure, aimed at a specific elections change rather than a broader opening of the Act.
The Explanatory Note states that the commenced paragraphs amend Schedule 5B to the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 and Schedule 2 to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. The legal effect is that elections for the return of a combined authority mayor and a combined county authority mayor are to be conducted using the supplementary vote system. That is the main practical consequence of the instrument. It does not rewrite the whole of English local election law. It switches on the provisions that apply to the devolution mayoral structures created under the 2009 and 2023 Acts.
The key transitional rule appears in regulation 3. The new amendments do not apply where the notice of election for a combined authority mayoral election or a combined county authority mayoral election was published before 18 June 2026. In administrative terms, the notice of election date is the legal cut-off. If a contest was already formally launched before 18 June 2026, the earlier rules remain in place for that election. If the notice is published on or after 18 June 2026, the new voting system applies.
For returning officers, combined authorities and combined county authorities, that cut-off is likely to be the most important operational point. The instrument avoids changing the voting system halfway through an election timetable that has already started, while requiring later polls to be planned on the new statutory basis. That is the function of the saving provision named in the title. It preserves the previous legal position for elections already in train, which reduces the risk of confusion over notices, ballot paper design, guidance and count arrangements once a poll has been triggered.
There is also a narrower drafting point worth noting. Section 63 of the parent Act is headed 'Mayors and Police and Crime Commissioners: supplementary vote system', but this commencement instrument only brings section 63 into force so far as it relates to paragraphs 12 to 19 of Schedule 30. On the face of these Regulations, the immediate live change is confined to combined authority and combined county authority mayoral elections. That distinction matters for readers tracking the wider implementation of the 2026 Act. These are the first commencement regulations under that Act, not the full commencement package, and the instrument should be read as a partial start rather than a general switch-on of all related election provisions.
The Regulations were signed by Samantha Dixon, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, on behalf of the Secretary of State and under powers in section 108 of the 2026 Act. The accompanying note also records that an impact assessment was prepared for the parent Act, with an addendum covering the supplementary vote provision. According to that note, no impact, or no significant impact, is foreseen for business, charities, or the public and voluntary sector. For councils, mayoral offices and prospective candidates, the immediate compliance question is more direct: whether the notice of election was published before 18 June 2026, because that date now decides which voting system the law requires.