Police are criticised for failing to record criminal offences

Minister says officers are not logging court results within target time as Chief Constable of Humberside faces calls to resign

Most police forces are taking too long to record criminal offences on a national database - an issue highlighted in the Soham double murder case - it was revealed yesterday.

Hazel Blears, a Home Office minister, told MPs that many forces had to do "a lot better to reach the standards we are entitled to expect" in logging arrest and court records on to the Police National Computer.

She made her comments after the release of figures showing that only 38 per cent of court verdicts in England, and 30 per cent of those in Wales, are recorded within the target time of seven days.

Flaws in police record-keeping were at the heart of the Ian Huntley case. After his conviction for the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman it was disclosed that he had been investigated on nine occasions for alleged sex offences, including rape, and once for burglary. Humberside Police, led by Chief Constable David Westwood, have come under intense criticism for failing to properly record the burglary charge on the national system, or to keep files locally on the nine sex cases.

The principal of Soham Village College has said he would not have offered Huntley a job as caretaker at the school if he had known the man had an outstanding burglary charge. Only convictions and cautions are recorded on the national computer system.

In her statement in the House of Commons, Ms Blears told MPs that a year-long study of the performance by police forces, ending in April 2002, was "not encouraging".

The unpublished follow-up report found that police were still missing their targets more than 19 months after the first report.

Forces are supposed to get details of 90 per cent of court results into the National Police Computer system within seven days. But during November, only 38 per cent of cases in England and 30 per cent of cases in Wales were entered within the target time, with 80 per cent of cases recorded within 28 days.

A target for 90 per cent of arrest and summons reports to be logged on to the computer system within 24 hours was also not met. In England 79 per cent of cases made the target and in Wales the figure was 76 per cent.

The data is crucial in allowing the recently formed Criminal Records Bureau to check the background of people who apply for jobs with children. Police also use the information to identify patterns of criminal behaviour, arrest suspects, and target likely offenders.

Ms Blears said: "Both the Inspectorate and the Home Secretary are clear that many police forces must do a lot better to reach the standards we are entitled to expect."

She added: "We know the Criminal Records Bureau can only be as good as the data available to it. That's why our ongoing work with police forces to ensure that the Police National Computer is kept up to date is so important."

Ms Blears also said that lessons must be learnt from the Soham murders. The independent inquiry announced by the Home Secretary David Blunkett into child protection procedures in Humberside and Cambridgeshire would last between three and six months, she said.

Under the checking system put in place since Huntley got the job of caretaker at Soham Village College, criminal allegations and other so-called "soft intelligence" is sent to the Criminal Records Bureau by police forces when they are asked to disclose what they know about someone applying to work with children.

Senior Humberside officers said they had previously adopted a policy of "weeding" out records because they thought they were required to do so by the Data Protection Act. It is a policy which few specialists or other police forces follow.

The decision on what to disclose remains with the chief constable of each individual force, leading to an information lottery and fears that someone else like Huntley could slip through the net where a police force only provides basic information.

Chris Fox, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: "I'm afraid the Data Protection Act and data protection commissioners still leave this to the judgement of individual police forces. We still have this need to balance the rehabilitation of offenders and the damage to people by scurrilous allegations.

"Teachers are subjected to scurrilous allegations for lots of reasons.

"We can't just record this and blight their careers. We have to make a judgement."