THE latest set of quarterly performance figures for Lancashire Police on delivery against key Government targets have been released.

The figures show that the Lancashire Criminal Justice Board continues to make steady progress and reflect its achievements over the last year.

Chief Constable Paul Stephenson, the inaugural chair of the board, said: "The figures show that we have continued to make progress against all our targets in the third quarter but we recognise that there is still a lot more hard work to be done.

"We are confident that our initiatives, such as our focus on persistent offenders, crackdown on outstanding warrants and implementation of fixed penalty notices for disorder are already having a positive impact on the delivery of justice."

Since April 2003, over 5,000 'failed to appear' warrants were executed in the county. As a consequence, the number of outstanding warrants across the county is at an all time low.

In the financial year 2003/2004, over 5,000 persistent offenders were arrested, with three-quarters resulting in either a charge, a summons or a caution.

In addition, Lancashire is the first area in England and Wales to introduce a street-issued version of the new penalty notice for disorders (PNDs), giving officers the option to deal with certain low-level offences in the street.

The board has also once again exceeded the target for bringing persistent young offenders more quickly before the courts.