Please be aware we’re making some improvements and building a new website. You can still report incidents, tell us about general intelligence or talk to us on live chat on this site. Thanks for your patience.

Police Stations and Custody Suites - 166/20

Date Responded 25 February 2020

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:

Can you please provide information on:

  1. Police Stations containing custody areas. Both Staffed and reserve locations.
  2. Number of cells and detention rooms at each location.
  3. Front Counter opening hours.
  4. Direct contact information for the front desk or custody suite contact person.
  5. Any stations closed since 2010.

In Response:

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with both the Estates and Custody Departments of Northumbria Police.  I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.

1&2. Newcastle City Centre Police Station – 50 cells

Middle Engine Lane Police Station – 40 cells

Southwick Police Station – 31 cells

The resilience custody suites are:-

Berwick Police Station – 6 cells

Bedlington Police Station – 20 cells

Etal Lane Police Station – 28 cells

South Shields Police Station – 12 cells.

3. As the information you have requested is accessible by other means I have not provided you with a copy of the information and will rely on Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  You should therefore consider this a refusal for your request.

I have provided an explanation to this exemption below.

Section 21 (1) - Information accessible by other means

Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant is exempt information.

This information is freely available on the Northumbria Police website via  the ‘contact us’ page, Local Police Stations/Offices

4. Contact can be made by ringing 101.  Alternatively contact can be made with the relevant Neighbourhood Policing Team at each station via an online form.

5. 25 police stations have been sold since 2010. However these have been replaced with a similar number of smaller Neighbourhood Policing Team bases, most of which are located in premises with partner agencies.  The aim is to make significant revenue savings and to raise capital receipts to offset the budget cuts and to protect front line policing. 

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.

back to top