Two North-East police forces have been told a "quantum leap forward" is needed in the way they handle calls from the public.

Both Durham and Cleveland forces were rated only "fair" in a detailed performance analysis carried out by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC).

The Home Office made clear that such a rating meant the police were falling short of the standards the public demanded and deserved.

It wants all forces to achieve the standard reached by the only three forces that were judged "excellent" - Hampshire, Kent and the West Midlands.

Those forces hit targets to answer 90 per cent of calls within ten seconds, to answer calls within an average of 30 seconds and for fewer than five per cent to be "abandoned".

The report, entitled 'First Contact', did not reveal how far short of those targets the country's other 40 forces fell during the year to March 2005.

But HM Inspector Kate Flannery said: "The significant reduction in most types of crime in recent years has not been matched by increases in levels of public confidence and satisfaction.

"This can partly be attributed to poor first contact and inadequate follow-up to a call for assistance."

The report highlighted how most forces were failing to match the quality, speed of response and professionalism of private sector call centres.

In the worst - unnamed - cases, centralised police call centres had led to delays of 24 or even 48 hours in sending officers to the scene of a crime.

Both North Yorkshire and Northumbria were rated "good". Both forces had improved their performance from "fair" the previous year. Cleveland had also improved its performance from both the previous two years, when it was condemned as "poor".

A Home Office spokesman said it hoped to relieve the pressure on the police by introducing a single number for non-emergency calls, which made up 70 per cent of 999 calls.

And, by 2008, every household would know the names, phone number and email address of its neighbourhood or community police officers.