Criminal prosecution delays grow as Labour misses target again

Labour's claim to be the party of law and order has been seriously undermined by a Whitehall report that shows criminal prosecutions are taking longer than at any time since it came to power.

In the past year the average time between an offence being committed and the sentencing of a defendant has increased by a week to 143 days, figures published by the Lord Chancellor's Department show, a day longer than when Labour was elected in 1997.

The report will embarrass ministers who have promised to reduce delays in the criminal justice system.

The authors say the police are taking longer to make arrests and the Crown Prosecution Service is taking longer to bring charges.

The report provides the latest example of the Government failing to meet its own targets. Ministers are increasingly worried that the targets are becoming a political "time bomb". The Tories and Liberal Democrats have both launched campaigns to expose Labour's missed targets and the Commons Public Administration Committee, chaired by the Labour MP Tony Wright, has launched an investigation.

Critics say ministers concentrated all their efforts on meeting the 1997 manifesto pledge to halve the time taken to prosecute persistent young offenders. This target has been met, but at the expense of prosecuting all other crimes.

A spokeswoman for the Lord Chancellor's Department said the report clearly showed that the fault lay with the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. The average time between a defendant's first contact with the courts and sentencing was 32 days – one day less than the year before.