A BID to build a new "joined-up justice" headquarters for York and North Yorkshire has won approval from police authority members.

The authority has backed a plan to bring together North Yorkshire Police's two administrative support units, based at Knaresborough and York police stations, with the three Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) offices, currently based in York, Harrogate and Northallerton.

The new purpose-built criminal justice and trials unit, which would see police and CPS staff working alongside each other, will be based at Clifton Moor, York.

Plans are already in place to co-locate Scarborough's police administrative support unit and the town's CPS office into the newly-refurbished Scarborough police station in January 2003.

The move, which is aimed at maximising efficiency and cutting duplication in the prosecution process, will make North Yorkshire one of the first in the country to fully integrate their police and CPS offices. The 1998 Glidewell report called for "a seamless joined-up justice system".

Inspector Tim Hutchinson, who has been involved in the project, said: "It has been recognised both at national and local level that there is a definite need to ensure that criminal justice is dispensed quickly, fairly and efficiently, and that long delays putting cases through the courts work against the interest of everyone concerned, not least the victims and witnesses.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said work was expected to begin on a greenfield site at Clifton Moor "in the near future" and should take 12 months to complete.

Updated: 12:00 Tuesday, September 24, 2002