HOME Secretary David Blunkett was today set to announce measures to improve the daily working life of police officers during a visit to North Yorkshire.

Mr Blunkett, who is meeting Chief Constable David Kenworthy, will also publish The Diary Of A Police Officer.

The diary was commissioned to gain a greater understanding of what a "typical" shift of a police officer entails, and is part of the Government's wider police reform agenda.

During his visit, Mr Blunkett will go on the beat with police constable Malcolm Young.

Home Office officials said Mr Blunkett wants to gain a "deeper insight" into the daily routine of police officers. The package is designed to give the police more time to spend on the fight against crime.

Mr Blunkett was presenting the results of a study which shows officers currently spend almost as long in the office as they do on the beat.

The Home Office said the steps were designed to free up time for the police so they could "concentrate on core issues" like catching criminals and reassuring the public.

The independent study, which was commissioned by the Government, charted the day-to-day workload of a police constable.

Researchers asked 400 officers to keep a diary of their daily duties and they carried out in-depth interviews with a further 100.

They found that the average constable spends 43per cent of his or her time in the office, and of that a total of 41 per cent involved doing paperwork.

Officers themselves complained to interviewers that they were spending too long caught up in red tape.

A Home Office spokeswoman said the study made a number of recommendations, of which some will be taken forward and others will be looked at in more detail. Mr Blunkett was today due to go "on the beat" with the police at Bedale, before unveiling the new measures.

The Government is expected to release its long-anticipated White Paper on police reform in the near future.

It is likely to propose far-reaching changes in areas including pay and conditions, regulation and flexible working hours.

Among the measures is expected to be a video system to replace identity parades, which police believe will be quicker and cheaper to operate, fairer to suspects and less traumatic for victims, who will no longer have to identify their attackers face-to-face.

The system, piloted in West Yorkshire, uses a database of video clips which can be used in conjunction with film of the suspect in identical circumstances.

Updated: 11:17 Thursday, November 01, 2001