All 43 police forces in England and Wales have been graded

Inspectors graded the 43 forces from poor to excellent in 16 activities ranging from reducing crime, such as burglary, to reassuring the public.

Cleveland Police on Teesside was the worst force, according to the tables.

Lancashire Constabulary emerged as best, scoring 'excellent' in seven of sixteen assessments and good in eight.

Chief inspector Sir Keith Povey said the tables "give forces a clear focus on the areas, we believe, they need to concentrate".

He said no force proved bad enough to risk the home secretary using new powers to sack chief constables and send in Home Office officials to run them.

'Unfair'

The HMIC graded 16 functions of each force, such as crime statistics, leadership and management, as poor, fair, good or excellent. But it said to make a league table would be unfair.

Chris Fox, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said it was more useful to use the results to compare similar forces than make a national table.

Sir Keith Povey says the tables will help police focus on difficult areas

But he said the ratings are likely to improve performance when each force can see what progress they are making.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It would be a bit unfair this time round to be too intrusive but in the future we should get better."

And he added there was no assessment of how much money each force had to spend.

Cleveland, which had the most poor and fair rankings of any force, was joined in the bottom five by the two police forces criticised in the wake of the Soham murders - Humberside and Cambridgeshire.

'Below average'

Nottinghamshire and West Yorkshire were also in the bottom slot.

"In comparison with their peers they still have a long way to go," said Sir Keith.

Humberside and Cleveland had the highest number of poor ratings, with six each.

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Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire were also singled out for their below-average performance.

At the top of the tables behind Lancashire were Kent, Northumbria, Staffordshire and Suffolk.

Merseyside and West Midlands were also commended.

Handling phonecalls from the public was identified as one of the top concerns across England and Wales, along with forces' ability to tackle widespread crime, such as drug dealing.

Police Federation chairman Jan Berry cautioned: "We should remember that it is quality of service that counts and not just quantity - policing isn't about pleasing the Home Office number crunchers and bureaucrats."

How Your Police Force Performed
Grades in four key categories
Police Force	Crimes like burglary, robbery	Hate crime	Handling calls from public	Dealing with major incidents
Avon & Somerset	Poor	Good	Good	Good
Bedfordshire	Fair	Fair	Good	Good
Cambridgeshire	Poor	Fair	Fair	Poor
Cheshire	Good	Good	Good	Good
Cleveland	Poor	Poor	Poor	Good
City of London	Good	Fair	Fair	Excellent
Cumbria	Good	Good	Good	Good
Derbyshire	Fair	Good	Good	Fair
Devon & Cornwall	Good	Good	Fair	Good
Dorset	Fair	Good	Fair	Excellent
Durham	Good	Fair	Fair	Good
Dyfed-Powys	Excellent	Excellent	Fair	Good
Essex	Fair	Good	Fair	Good
Gloucestershire	Good	Fair	Good	Good
Greater Manchester	Poor	Fair	Fair	Good
Gwent	Good	Fair	Fair	Good
Hampshire	Good	Fair	Good	Good
Hertfordshire	Good	Good	Good	Good
Humberside	Poor	Fair	Poor	Fair
Kent	Good	Good	Good	Excellent
Lancashire	Good	Excellent	Good	Excellent
Leicestershire	Fair	Good	Good	Excellent
Lincolnshire	Fair	Poor	Fair	Good
Merseyside	Good	Good	Fair	Good
Met Police	Fair	Fair	Fair	Excellent
Norfolk	Good	Good	Fair	Fair
North Wales	Fair	Fair	Fair	Excellent
North Yorks	Poor	Fair	Fair	Good
Northamptonshire	Poor	Excellent	Good	Good
Northumbria	Good	Good	Fair	Excellent
Nottinghamshire	Poor	Poor	Fair	Good
South Wales	Good	Excellent	Fair	Fair
South Yorkshire	Fair	Fair	Poor	Excellent
Staffordshire	Good	Good	Good	Excellent
Suffolk	Excellent	Good	Poor	Good
Surrey	Good	Good	Good	Fair
Sussex	Fair	Good	Poor	Good
Thames Valley	Fair	Fair	Fair	Excellent
Warwickshire	Good	Fair	Fair	Good
West Mercia	Good	Fair	Good	Good
West Midlands	Good	Good	Fair	Fair
West Yorkshire	Poor	Fair	Fair	Good
Wiltshire	Good	Good	Good	Good
Source: HMIC