Forces in region slip down list

Police forces in the West Midlands region today slipped in the Home Office performance tables, with Staffordshire losing its crown to Lancashire and Surrey.

The county was last year's top performing force in England and Wales.

And the West Midlands is no longer the top Metropolitan force, 2006/07 inspections show.

The Home Office report, which identifies the 43 forces' strengths and weaknesses by a points system for "excellent", "good", "fair", "stable" and "poor" ratings, shows the force's performance in reducing and investigating crimes has improved, awarding it a "good" grading for each of these categories.

The same is said in terms of providing assistance to members of the public, citizen focus, local policing and use of resources.

The joint table-toppers each scored 20 points out of 30, followed by Cumbria and Northumbria on 19 pints.

However, there was some good news for the region, with West Mercia remaining one of the top performing forces in the country by polling joint fifth with four other forces on 17 points. Staffordshire scored 14 and the West Midlands 13.

Nationally, police performance showed an overall improvement with violent crime down.