REVEALED: CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN CHAOS

Shock figures show just 326,000 convicted for 5.2 million crimes

Millions of crimes are going unpunished each year and tens of millions of
pounds spent in the justice system are being wasted, according to a damning
report from the Government's spending watchdog.

The Audit Commission will reveal tomorrow that only 326,000 offenders were
convicted between 2000 and 2001 despite police recording 5.2 million
offences. Around UKP80m is wasted each year through adjournments and
cancellations of trials.

The figures show a criminal justice system in chaos with "delays and
inefficiencies throughout the process" and "cases dropping out of the
system unnecessarily, allowing offenders to evade justice".

The report, which demands "radical change", comes amid new worries over
rising crime rates. Reports last night said the Government is set to
publish figures showing a 6 per cent increase in the number of offences in
England and Wales in the year to March 2002 - the biggest rise for a
decade. The increase is being driven by a sharp rise in burglaries and
street muggings.

Tony Blair has already pledged to make crime reduction a priority. This
week, he will be a key speaker at a London conference on modernising
criminal justice, organised by the Metropolitan Police and the US Federal
Bureau of Investigation.

Mr Blair is expected to tell delegates at the conference that too many
criminals are evading justice. He will also call for defendants' past
convictions to be made available to juries if relevant.

That is one of a raft of proposals in a White Paper on criminal justice
reform due to be published this summer. The Prime Minister has already
announced that the Government is committed to reducing street crime by the
end of September.

"The pendulum has swung too far in favour of the defendant," said a senior
Home Office source. "We appreciate that their rights need to be upheld but
so do victims'. More needs to be done to speed up the criminal justice
process."

The police and Home Office have already announced measures to relieve
demands on officers as crime soars.

They include the introduction of police community support officers. The
officers will initially have the powers of private citizens but the
Government plans to extend their role so they can detain suspected
criminals until a police officer arrives.

However, it has now emerged that the force has al-ready drawn up a
redundancy package to pay off the support officers after three years, the
duration of existing budgeting.

Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, will also speak at
the London conference. Last week, he released figures that showed 11 crimes
were reported every minute in England and Wales. They came from the first
24-hour snapshot study of a typical day in the criminal justice system. It
found 16,500 crimes were reported in England and Wales on 1 May.