Date published: 16/05/2007

Claims by the Liberal Democrats that Greater Manchester Police spent over 3 million hours filling in paperwork last year have been disputed by Chris Davies - one of their own Euro-MPs.
 
Official figures cited by the party suggest that police officers spend around a fifth of their time on paperwork.  For a force the size of Greater Manchester Police this is the equivalent of 3,246,383 million hours of form filling.
 
But Chris Davies says that police officers tell him that the situation is in fact much, much worse.
 
"Forget the figures and listen to the people who are actually filling in the forms," he said. 
 
"Police officers tell me that as much as 80% of their time can be spent completing the mountains of paperwork.  It's a scandalous waste of time and public resources, and it leaves police officers feeling demotivated and cynical."
 
Accurate records are essential if convictions are to be secured, says the MEP, but he has hit out at the duplication of forms that could be replaced by modern technology.
 
Liberal Democrats nationally are calling for a full assessment of how the use of IT systems, voice recognition technology and hand-held equipment could free police time from form-filling.
 
They are also calling for civilian staff to provide greater clerical support to relieve officers from paperwork.
 
Mr Davies commented: "Officers and the public share one very strong view in common - both want the police to be spending more time doing the work for which they are trained and less time stuck in the office."