Police officers in Sussex are spending more than a third of their working lives training and doing paperwork instead of patrolling the streets catching criminals.

Figures published by the Home Office reveal Sussex Police spent 38.7 per cent of its time filling-in forms and carrying out other administrative duties in 2005/6.

That left just 61.3 per cent of their shifts for "frontline duties" - including making arrests.

Sussex officers managed less frontline work than the national average of 63.1 per cent.

However, the total amount of form-filling is even higher because the Home Office's definition of frontline policing includes time spent on "incident-related" paper work.

This means writing-up arrest reports and case files, which takes up on average 8.6 per cent of an officer's frontline duty time.

The "non-incident-related" paperwork, carried out when officers are away from the front line, includes organising truancy sweeps, dealing with complaints, community policing activities, internal management issues and carrying out desk work on inquiries which are later ditched.

Non-frontline duty would also include going on training courses.

The Home Office has set a target for Sussex Police to increase the proportion of its time spent on the frontline to 68.5 per cent by the end of the financial year next March.

The figures, which were compiled during a two week "snapshot" of police activity in Sussex, were yesterday condemned by shadow home secretary David Davis.

The Tory MP said: "Under Labour our police have become swamped in bureaucracy and red tape.

"As a result they are stuck behind their desks doing paper work, not out on the streets detecting and deterring crime. Labour should realise the public want the police to be crime fighters, not form writers."

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "Most recently available figures indicate that 63.1 per cent of all police officer time was spent on frontline policing in 2005/6 and this includes time spent in the police station completing incident related paperwork.

"There will always be an element of paperwork required in policing to ensure accountability in the use of powers and in the preparation of case files and witness statements."

The Government has asked Sir Ronnie Flanagan, Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary, to carry out a review of how police time is spent.

Despite record recruitment to the ranks, the public continues to complain that there are too few uniformed officers on the streets because of the amount of paperwork officers have to complete.

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