POLICE officers will have to be licensed like doctors and lawyers as part of Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's major changes which will also mean the start of direct-entry police chiefs and more graduates being recruited. Police officers in England and Wales will be required to hold and renew a licence throughout their career so they learn new skills as criminal techniques evolve. Officers must adopt new skills to stay at the top of their game and keep pace with new methods adopted by...

New powers to allow the Home Secretary to send crack squads into failing police forces to turn them around and to sack chief constables will be unveiled on Monday. Shabana Mahmood (above) said Government ministers currently have limited powers to intervene with forces who are failing to fight crime, and the public have little oversight of their local police. She is set to announce the largest reforms to policing since the police service was founded two centuries ago. It comes after she was...

A FORMER police informer who spied on environmental activists has been jailed for life after he planned to travel overseas to rape children as young as six. Edward Gratwick, 68, (above and below), also known as Nick, from Mitcham, was arrested at Stansted Airport on 7 March 2025 as he attempted to board a flight to Bucharest, Romania. He was found guilty in October of 38 “abhorrent” paedophile offences, including plans to pay to rape or sexually assault children in the UK and abroad. He was...