Ministers must seize the opportunity to restructure the UK’s 43-force system as part of a forthcoming review of criminal justice, one of Britain’s most senior police officers has told The Times.

Martin Hewitt, head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said that now was the right time to rethink policing priorities and set out proposals addressing the national impact of having dozens of force areas.

Mr Hewitt called on the government to include policing in the royal commission on criminal justice set out in the Queen’s Speech.

“It’s always the elephant in the room,” Mr Hewitt said. “We are trying to make a complex system work on what is not the design that we would start with if we were starting from scratch.”