CAMBRIDGESHIRE is one of the safest places in Britain to live, a report has found. And its constabulary is the only one in the UK to have improved in all seven categories of performance. The force s performance in reducing overall crime by 10 per cent in

CAMBRIDGESHIRE is one of the safest places in Britain to live, a report has found.

And its constabulary is the only one in the UK to have improved in all seven categories of performance.

The force's performance in reducing overall crime by 10 per cent in 2005/6 is highlighted by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.

The Home Office report congratulates the force's major investigation team for getting convictions leading to three life sentences for murder within a month and commends Cambridgeshire's neighbourhood policing teams.

Chief Constable Julie Spence said: "This assessment is proof, just like performance figures issued earlier this year that we have taken giant strides in detecting and fighting crime and offering reassurances to the community."

The figures give the force its first "excellent" grading for dealing with violent crime and three other excellent grades for detection, offences brought to justice and efficiency savings.

In the seven overall categories, the grading for the force by the Home Office is three "goods" and four "fairs". Last year, the grades were one "good", four "fairs" and two "poor".

This year, reducing crime and investigating crime were marked as good - up from fair. Promoting safety was marked fair-improving, up from fair stable.

Providing assistance was marked good-improved, up from good-stable. Citizen focus and resource use were marked fair up from poor and local policing is again marked fair-improving.

* Another report has found there are more registered sex offenders in Cambridgeshire than there were last year - an increase three times the national average.

However, the increase is still small and Cambridgeshire is in the middle of the table for the actual number of offenders.

There are currently 387 registered sex offenders in the county. Last year's total was 353. This means an increase of 34 - or nine per cent. The average increase in the rest of the UK is three per cent.

When it comes to actual numbers, Cambridgeshire has 53 registered sex offenders per 100,000 of the population. This compares with: Norfolk 79, Suffolk 58, Bedfordshire 70, Essex 49 and Hertfordshire 38. London is 42.

The figures have been released by MAPPA (multi-agency public protection arrangements) a system involving the police, probation service and prisons.