England and Wales police and crime commissioner elections, 2016

Police and crime commissioner elections, 2016

← 2012 5 May 2016 2020 →
36 police and crime commissioners in England 4 police and crime commissioners in Wales
First party Second party   Leader David Cameron Jeremy Corbyn Party Conservative Labour Leader since 6 December 2005 12 September 2015 Last election 16 12 Popular vote 2,601,560 3,047,428 Percentage 29.3% 34.3% Swing 1.6% 2.3% Commissioners 20 15 Commissioners +/– 4 3   Third party Fourth party   Leader Leanne Wood Party Independent Plaid Cymru Leader since 16 March 2012 Last election 12 0 Popular vote 721,190 228,334 Percentage 8.1% 2.6% Swing 15.0% 2.6% Commissioners 3 2 Commissioners +/– 9 2
The 40 police force areas within England and Wales where elections were held. Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.

Elections of police and crime commissioners in England and Wales were held on 5 May 2016.

The elections were for 40 of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales using the supplementary vote system; the two police forces of Greater London are not involved (the elected Mayor of London is classed as the police and crime commissioner for the Metropolitan Police District, while the Court of Common Council fulfils the role for the City of London Police). There was no election for the Greater Manchester Police as the role of police and crime commissioner is due to be abolished in 2017 and replaced with the directly elected Mayor of Greater Manchester. Elections for police and crime commissioners do not take place in Scotland or Northern Ireland as policing and justice powers are devolved to the Scottish Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly.

This was the second time police and crime commissioner elections had been held.

The election used the supplementary vote system: voters were instructed to mark the ballot paper with their first and second choices of candidate (although there were an unusually large number of spoilt ballots). If no candidate got a majority of first preference votes, the top two candidates went on to a second round in which second preference votes of the eliminated candidates were allocated to them to produce a winner. This is the system used to elect London's mayor. Section 57 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 directs that the voting system is first past the post if there are only two candidates for a specific commissioner region.

The role of police and crime commissioner for the Greater Manchester Police is due to be abolished in 2017 and replaced with the directly elected Mayor of Greater Manchester, who will assume the responsibilities of the police and crime commissioner. No election was therefore held in 2016 and Tony Lloyd will remain as police and crime commissioner and interim mayor until the mayoral election takes place in 2017.