24 September 2004
Little more than half of police officers' time is spent on crime-fighting, the Home Office has revealed.
The admission casts doubt on government initiatives to free constables from paperwork to spend more time on the street.
Home Office minister Hazel Blears confirmed that an estimated 53% of police activity now relates to beat patrols and crime-fighting, while 10% is spent on case preparation and the remainder on other administrative functions.
Blears' admission followed the publication of the Home Office's annual Police performance monitoring figures for 2003/04, which included a new estimate of 'time spent on frontline duties' across all 43 forces in England and Wales.
The report shows that the average officer spends 63% of their time on frontline policing, but that includes preparing cases that could go to court.
Blears said the latter accounts for around 10% of an officers' workload. But she defended the decision to include it in the government's definition of 'frontline', arguing: 'High quality case preparation is vital to any effective police force, because without it forces risk poorly prepared cases reaching court and being dismissed. It is a core policing function.'
The report carried more bad news for Blears and Home Secretary David Blunkett. The proportion of crimes solved across England and Wales has fallen for the second successive year. Overall detection rates dropped by 0.3% to 18.8%, with 24 out of 43 forces achieving worse rates than in 2002/03.
It is difficult to compare forces nationally – the report contrasts 'peer' forces representing similar population sizes and unemployment rates – but London's Metropolitan Police Force showed the lowest detection rate, followed by Humberside and Cambridgeshire.
The latter two forces performed badly in a separate report published by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary earlier this year. Humberside chief constable David Westwood was later suspended by Blunkett following the report into the Soham murders investigation. Westwood was reinstated earlier this month.
Forces with the best detection rates include Dyfed-Powys with 36.6%, Gwent with 30.2% and the City of London with 29.7%.
There are some crumbs of comfort for ministers. Burglary has been reduced by 8%, robbery is down by 6% and vehicle crime down by 9%.
Chris Fox, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, claimed the figures represented a 'remarkable year of achievement for policing nationally', because they highlighted reductions in key crimes.
Blears added: 'The overall picture… that emerges is encouraging. Crime and the fear of crime are both down and the number of offences brought to justice has gone up.'
But shadow home secretary David Davis said: 'No amount of Home Office spin can cover up these statistics. Criminals are not being caught and the number of crimes recorded is rising.'
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