§ Mr. YeoTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers there were in(a) England and (b) Wales in each of the last 10 years in areas defined as (i) rural and (ii) urban; and if he will publish the criteria used to define an area as rural or urban. [136746]
§ Mr. Charles Clarke[holding answer 6 November, 2000]: All police forces in England and Wales have rural and urban areas. Information is not centrally collected about the number of police officers deployed to either rural or urban areas. Available resources are deployed by Chief Officers of Police according to operational need.