PERSISTENT young offenders in York and North Yorkshire are being dealt with faster than ever before, with the average time between arrest and sentence down to only 66 days.

Crime bosses believe that a new centre at Clifton Moor, York, bringing together police officers and public prosecutors, will make the criminal justice system generally faster and more effective.

A report on the progress of the Local Criminal Justice Board (LCJB) has revealed that crime-fighting agencies have not met their targets for reducing the number of failed and ineffective trials, although the number of offenders brought to book has increased.

Senior police officers have complained that a "backlog" of cases with the Crown Prosecution Service has "skewed" some figures.

But Rob Turnbull, North Yorkshire's chief crown prosecutor, said the majority of these have now been cleared and talks are taking place to improve systems in the future. He said the new Clifton Moor centre, which is expected to open next year, would bring police and Crown solicitors together to create a faster, more efficient justice service.

Acting Chief Inspector Nicholas Hunter, of North Yorkshire police administration of justice department, said the LCJB was not meeting its targets for adult persistent offenders, but was excelling in other areas, in particular in reducing the time between arrest and sentence for young offenders.

He said: "For those areas in which it is under-performing, action plans have been put in place with a view to improving performance.

"In relation to the persistent offender scheme, the figures are heavily skewed because there is a backlog of cases that have not been finalised by the Crown Prosecution Service.

"It is anticipated that when this is done, North Yorkshire's performance will improve substantially."

Updated: 10:30 Friday, March 12, 2004