Part 5: Police and Crime Commissioners and Police Areas Section 124: Amendments to the names of police areas
Section 1 of the 1996 Act provides for England and Wales to be divided into police areas, the name and geographical extent of the 41 police areas outside London are then specified in Schedule 1 to the 1996 Act.
	Section 1 of the 2011 Act provides for a PCC for every police area listed in Schedule 1 to the 1996 Act. Section 1(3) provides that the name of the PCC is "the Police and Crime Commissioner for [name of police area]".
	Section 32 of the 1996 Act contains an order-making power which enables geographical alterations to be made to a police force area, together with any consequential change to the name of an altered area, but this power cannot be exercised so as to simply to change the name of a police area.
	Subsection (1) inserts new section 31A into the 1996 Act which enables the Secretary of State (in practice, the Home Secretary) to amend the name of a police force area by regulations (subject to the affirmative procedure).
	New section 31A of the 1996 does not stipulate any criteria for the exercise of the regulation-making power, but it is envisaged that the Home Secretary will only exercise the power in response to local representations, for example from the PCC, where there is evidence of local support and the proposed change of name represents value for money (having regard, for example, to the cost of changing force logos).
	Subsection (2) makes a consequential amendment to section 1 of the 1996 Act which draws out the distinction between the power in new section 31A of the 1996 Act (which is limited to changing the name of a police area in the first column of Schedule 1 to the 1996 Act) and the existing powers in section 32 of the 1996 Act and in various local government enactments (which enable both the name of a police force area and its geographical extent or description (as set out in the second column of Schedule 1) to be amended).