Rural Policing - 437/23

Date Responded 30 March 2023

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

1. Does your force have a rural policing team?

2. If the answer is yes, how many personnel form the rural policing team?

3. Could I have the total number of police personnel who form the rural team for every year since 2010. If for Question 3 you are only able to provide data from years more recent than 2010, this will be acceptable.

In Response:

1. Northumbria Police does not have a specific team known as a ‘rural team’ however there are multiple teams and resources that cover the rural areas of the force. In order to assist we have provided the following information retrieved from systems which may be useful to your needs.

The following is a breakdown of the teams covering the rural areas of North Northumberland and Southeast Northumberland. During the period team names have changed and have been grouped as follows:

Neighbourhood Policing Team includes Neighbourhood, Community & Neighbourhood Policing Team
Response Policing Team includes Response, 24/7 and Response Policing Team.

2. The below are full time equivalent (FTE) Police Officer numbers as of 1 March 2023.

Function	FTE
Neighbourhood Policing Team	24.35
Response Policing Team	81.99
Total	106.34

3. The below are Police Officer FTE numbers for each year as of 1 January.

Function	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Neighbourhood Policing Team	67.09	74.92	53.59	54.79	51.95	50.67	44.84
Response Policing Team	149.51	151	145.48	148.12	147.68	138.83	109.16
Grand Total	216.6	225.92	199.07	202.91	199.63	189.5	154

Function	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
Neighbourhood Policing Team	41	42.85	37.52	33.31	34.44	32.17	29.35
Response Policing Team	94.7	88.48	83.24	93.75	94.39	100.61	89.87
Grand Total	135.7	131.33	120.76	127.06	128.83	132.78	119.22

Disclaimer

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.