Sous-préfecture

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Sous-préfecture is French for "subprefecture".

In France, a sous-préfecture is the administrative town of an arrondissement not containing the préfecture for its département. The term sous-préfecture equally describes a building housing the administarive headquarters for the arrondissement.

The civil servant in charge of a sous-préfecture is the sous-préfet, assisted by a secrétaire général. Between May 1982 and February 1988, sous-préfets were known instead by the title "commissaire adjoint de la République".

Where the administration of an arrondissement is carried out from a préfecture, the secrétaire général to the préfet carries out duties equivalent to those of the sous-préfet.

It should be noted that Paris has no sous-préfecture, being made up of only a single préfecture. The municipal arrondissements of Paris (as well as of Lyon and Marseille) are divisions of the city (or commune) rather than the préfecture, and so are not arrondissements in the same sense.