A shortage of police officers aiming for promotion to sergeant may have been solved thanks to Thames Valley's Chief Constable.

Peter Neyroud has led a campaign to scrap a controversial role-play exam which he said left the force with too many acting sergeants, because highly-regarded constables struggled to pass it and became reluctant to put themselves forward for promotion.

Last year, he said it was time to declare no confidence in the exam and called on police minister Hazel Blears to replace it with on-the-job assessments.

The Home Office has now removed a quota system on numbers passing or failing the exam and instead introduced a standard pass mark -- resulting in far more successful Thames Valley candidates.

It has also agreed to carry out trials of workplace-based assessment to replace the role-play test, which is also taken by officers trying for promotion to inspector.

Thames Valley has asked to take part in the trials, due to start later this year and to last 18 months. Mr Neyroud said: "I'm really pleased. We do appear to have have won an argument and changed a system really quite rapidly."

In the most recent exam for would-be sergeants, 67 out of 90 candidates achieved the 45 per cent pass mark.

"If this continues and if we keep getting these sorts of numbers through the exam it will solve the problem," said Mr Neyroud.

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