The Home Office has laid the Crime and Policing Act 2026 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2026, a short but operationally significant statutory instrument that brings section 139 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 into force on 1 September 2026. The Regulations were made on 25 August 2026 by Jo White, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, using the commencement power in section 255(1) of the 2026 Act. Although the instrument itself is limited to commencement, the legal effect is wider. From the start date, section 139 takes effect across England and Wales and changes how certain roles involving children are treated for safeguarding purposes.
According to the Explanatory Note, section 139 removes the provisions in Schedule 4 to the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 that had taken supervised roles out of regulated activity in the child workforce. In practical terms, the previous supervised-role exclusion no longer applies for the affected child workforce positions. The result is that people who work closely and frequently with children in England and Wales are treated as engaging in regulated activity whether they are supervised or not. That point matters because regulated activity is the threshold that determines both barred-list restrictions and access to the highest level of criminal record checking for these roles.
For employers and appointing bodies, the immediate compliance effect is on pre-employment checking and role assessment. Where a post now falls within regulated activity, the role can be subject to an enhanced DBS certificate with a check of the children’s barred list. The Explanatory Note states that this aligns the checking position with the level of risk to children involved in the role. This is likely to be most relevant for organisations that had relied on supervision arrangements when deciding that a role sat outside regulated activity. From 1 September 2026, that distinction is no longer available for the supervised roles captured by the change, and safer recruitment processes will need to reflect the revised legal position.
The change also carries consequences for individuals and organisations already operating within safeguarding frameworks. Regulated activity is not only about eligibility for checks; it also triggers the legal requirements attached to individuals and employers in this part of the safeguarding regime. That means workforce classifications, recruitment templates, internal guidance and referral practices may all need review where they were built around the former supervised-role exception. For schools, colleges, charities, care settings, faith groups, sports organisations and local authorities, the main task is unlikely to be legislative interpretation so much as implementation. Roles involving close and frequent work with children should now be checked against the amended definition rather than against earlier assumptions about supervision removing the post from regulated activity.
The instrument does not include a separate impact assessment. The Explanatory Note says none has been produced for this statutory instrument because impact assessments were prepared in relation to the Crime and Policing Act 2026 itself. That is a standard approach for commencement regulations, which often activate a policy already assessed at Act stage rather than introducing a new policy in their own right. Even so, commencement dates matter operationally. A one-line activation provision can trigger immediate changes in vetting practice, job design and safeguarding governance, particularly where employers recruit at pace or depend on large numbers of staff and volunteers across child-facing services.
This is the second set of commencement regulations made under the Crime and Policing Act 2026. Its significance lies less in the length of the instrument than in the shift it confirms: supervised status will no longer keep the relevant child workforce roles outside regulated activity. From 1 September 2026, the legal position in England and Wales is clearer and stricter. Where work with children is close and frequent, employers should proceed on the basis that the role is within regulated activity regardless of supervision, with barred-list checking and safeguarding duties adjusted accordingly.