A police area is the area for which a territorial police force in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

is responsible for

policing The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citizen ...

. Every location in the

has a designated territorial police force with statutory responsibility for providing policing services and enforcing criminal law, which is set out in the various police areas below.

Special police forces Special police usually describes a law enforcement agency or unit within a such an agency whose duties and responsibilities are significantly different from other forces in the same nation, jurisdiction, or from other personnel within the same agen ...

and other non-territorial constabularies do not have police areas and their respective specialist areas of responsibility are shared with the relevant geographic territorial police force. Ultimately the chief officer of a territorial police force has primacy over all law enforcement within his police area even if it is within the remit of a special police force such as the

British Transport Police British Transport Police (BTP; ) is a national special police force that polices the railway network of England, Wales and Scotland, which consists of over 10,000 miles of track and 3,000 stations and depots. BTP also polices the London Under ...

on the railway infrastructure, the

Ministry of Defence Police The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) is a civilian special police force#United Kingdom, special police force which is part of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence. The MDP's primary responsibilities are ...

on MOD property or a port constabulary on a port.

History

The

Metropolitan Police District The Metropolitan Police District (MPD) is the police area which is policed by the Metropolitan Police Service in London. It currently consists of the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, which excludes the City of ...

was the first example of a police area. Police areas were introduced with the passage of the Police Act 1964 and Police (Scotland) Act 1967, when a number of small (mainly county borough) police forces were merged with county ones. The current system of police areas in England and Wales is set out b
Section 1
of the

Police Act 1996 The Police Act 1996 (c. 16) is an Act of Parliament (UK), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which defined the current police areas in England and Wales, constituted Police Authority, police authorities for those areas, and set out the re ...

. There are 43 police areas in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

, most of which are defined b
Schedule 1
of the 1996 act. They may be altered by order of the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, more commonly known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom and the head of the Home Office. The position is a Great Office of State, maki ...

.Section 32, Police Act 1996
/ref> The two other areas, the Metropolitan Police District and the City of London police area, are defined b
Section 76
of the

London Government Act 1963 The London Government Act 1963 (c. 33) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which created Greater London and a new local government structure within it. The Act significantly reduced the number of local government districts in the ...

and the City of London Police Act 1839 respectively. Northern Ireland and Scotland each have only one territorial police force: the

Police Service of Northern Ireland The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI; ; Ulster-Scots: '), is the police service responsible for law enforcement and the prevention of crime within Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) after it ...

(PSNI) and Police Service of Scotland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Police Area Law enforcement in the United Kingdom Types of subdivision in the United Kingdom Police divisions

History

See also

References