§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many functioning police stations there were, broken down by(a) police force and (b) local authority area, in each year since 1997. [42371]
§ Mr. DenhamChief constables have provided information on the number of police stations functioning in the years since 1997. This is given in the table. Police and local authority areas now coincide.
Comprehensive information is available for the three years to March 2000, March 2001 and March 2002, but in some cases forces were unable to provide data for earlier years. This is reflected in the table.
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Police station numbers 1997–2002 Force: at March 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Avon and Somerset 35 36 39 39 41 42 Bedfordshire — — — 11 10 9 Cambridgeshire 29 28 25 25 24 24 Cheshire 38 38 36 33 35 35 City of London 2 2 2 2 2 2 Cleveland 24 23 22 22 22 22 Cumbria 34 34 24 24 24 25 Derbyshire — — — 25 27 25 Devon and Cornwall 71 68 68 65 65 64 Dorset 27 27 26 26 25 25 Durham 40 40 40 40 40 38 Dyfed-Powys 44 47 48 48 48 48 Essex1 114 114 114 72 57 55 Gloucestershire 62 63 59 47 42 40 Greater Manchester 82 74 70 70 68 68 Gwent — 57 52 56 49 49 Hampshire 104 102 94 92 89 89 Hertfordshire1 23 23 23 21 25 25 Humberside 35 36 34 33 33 32 Kent 32 32 32 32 30 30 Lancashire 109 108 108 108 107 106 Leicestershire 28 28 28 30 30 30 Lincolnshire 43 42 42 42 42 41 Metropolitan1 — — — 156 144 148 Merseyside 52 51 50 44 43 43 Norfolk — — — 42 42 45 Northamptonshire 12 12 12 12 12 12 Northumbria — — — 36 36 36 North Wales — — — 54 52 51 North Yorkshire — — — 35 35 35 Nottinghamshire 64 42 42 44 46 47 South Wales 138 137 136 125 122 119 South Yorkshire 84 86 82 80 77 75 Staffordshire 39 38 38 38 38 38 Suffolk 27 28 28 28 28 28 Surrey1 30 28 26 22 28 29 Sussex 34 34 35 36 36 35 Thames Valley 53 47 55 55 51 53 Warwickshire 15 15 15 15 15 15
Police station numbers 1997–2002 Force: at March 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 West Mercia 53 53 53 53 53 53 West Midlands 72 70 69 68 68 69 West Yorkshire — — — 40 40 40 Wiltshire 28 26 24 24 24 24 Totals 21,677 21,689 21,651 1,970 1,925 1,919 1 The apparent loss of 12 stations by the Metropolitan police service between March 2000 and March 2001 reflects transfers to boundary forces in April 2000; Essex (2), Herts (4) and Surrey (6) 2 Individual force figures are given where available. Some forces are unable to provide numbers for years before March 2000.