Commenting on the Government's response to the Home Affairs Select Committee on police reform, Home Office Minister Hazel Blears said:

"I welcome the Home Affairs Committee's helpful and constructive report on police reform and am grateful to the Committee for the detailed work it has undertaken in this area.

"I particularly welcome the agreement of the majority of witnesses called by the committee that the direction of the police reform programme has been the right one and that much progress has been made in embedding a performance culture in the service.

"The sustained programme of reform which has been taken forward by the police service and the Government together has undoubtedly delivered real results. Police numbers are at an all time high of over 140,000 - up 13,000 on 1997. There are 6,300 Community Support Officers providing a visible and reassuring presence on our streets, with £340 million being made available by 2007/08 to fund 24,000 CSOs. And overall investment in policing is up 21% in real terms since 1997. There has been a 30% reduction in crime, with the chance of being a victim of crime at its lowest level since the British Crime Survey began in 1981.

"However, we also agree with the committee that more needs to be done. We recognise the need to drive up performance in detecting crime across all forces and have made clear our commitment to doing so. It is for this reason that increasing sanction detections is one of the five key priorities in the National Policing Plan 2005-08. In addition, a major drive has been underway since summer 2004 to both raise detection rates and also to address unacceptable variations in detections performance between forces.

"The Government and the police service are absolutely committed to achieving a modernised and professional police service that is connected to the public we are here to serve, with confidence in policing and respect for the individual and the community."

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