To ask the Minister of Justice for her Department's definition of rural.

My Department does not apply a single definition of rural but duly considers the ‘Review of the Statistical Classification and Delineation of Settlements’ published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) in 2015, when appropriately defining urban and rural areas for different projects and programmes.

In terms of our policy on Rural Crime, my Department’s Community Safety Strategy 2012-2017 contains a commitment to making rural communities safer by reducing opportunities to commit crime. It also highlights my Department’s commitment to supporting the outcomes of the Executive’s Rural White Paper and Action Plan, led by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), to support and sustain rural communities and to deliver initiatives in rural areas across Northern Ireland that will contribute to safer rural communities.

The Rural Crime Partnership (RCP), which consists of representatives from my Department, the Police Service of Northern Ireland, NFU Mutual, the Ulster Farmers’ Union and DAERA, delivers actions taken forward at a strategic level to support safer rural communities. The primary focus of the RCP has been on developing a collaborative response to crime which is specific to rural areas – agricultural crime.

In addition to this, my Department meets regularly with the PSNI to further develop opportunities and initiatives, which focus on addressing rural crime.

At a local level, Policing and Community Safety Partnerships continue to deliver a wide range of initiatives to address crimes in their local areas.