'Offenders not dealt with in time'

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Watchdogs found that finalising sanctions against 4% of adult offenders who breached their punishments took more than 200 working days - or 40 weeks - against a target of 35 working days.

There were incentives for offenders to "drag out" the disciplinary process in a bid to avoid prosecution, their report added.

Warrants issued for offenders who failed to turn up at court often remained outstanding for "significant periods" and were only prioritised if the criminal was regarded as dangerous or a priority offender, the joint study found.

The report - by the inspectorates of constabulary, probation and court administration - said: "Where breach processes are not robust, there is an incentive for offenders to drag out proceedings hoping the prosecution will fail."

It noted that making sure offenders comply with community punishments is one of the Prime Minister's top priorities for the criminal justice system.

For adult cases in a sample analysed by inspectors, the average time to enforce action against someone who had breached a community penalty was 53 days. "Unfortunately, 15% of cases took in excess of 100 working days, including 4% that took over 200 working days," the study said.

For juveniles, the average time was 24 working days, giving an overall average across age groups of 43 days, against the 35-day target.

Chief Inspector of Probation Andrew Bridges said: "Improving performance in the future is possible, but not through any specific sweeping innovations. As is often the case with criminal justice system processes, improvement will be achieved through patient incremental improvement in detailed processes year-on-year."

He added: "This path to improvement can and should be diligently followed by probation, youth offending teams, courts, police and others, working together."