Section 1: Police and crime commissioners
21.Section 1 creates a new directly elected police and crime commissioner for each police force area in England and Wales outside London.
22.Subsection (2) provides that the police and crime commissioner will be a corporation sole. This means that the office will have its own legal personality, distinct from that of the person holding it, and it is in this separate capacity that the police and crime commissioner will own property, employ staff, make contracts and take part in legal proceedings.
23.Subsections (5) to (7) set out the core functions of police and crime commissioners, which are to secure the maintenance of an efficient and effective police force, and to hold the chief constable to account for the exercise of his functions. These are the functions previously carried out by police authorities.
24.Subsection (8) sets out a number of functions in respect of which, in particular, the police and crime commissioner must hold the chief constable to account.
25.Subsection (9) abolishes all police authorities under section 3 of the Police Act 1996.
26.Subsection (10) introduces Schedule 1.
