An action plan to improve Thames Valley Police's detection rate by investing heavily in its forensic science unit has been drawn up.

Fifteen new staff, including scenes of crimes officers, will be taken on, at a cost of almost £500,000, after an internal review found delays in producing evidence were caused by staff shortages.

The forensic science unit - which includes DNA testing, the fingerprint bureau, scenes of crime, and the photographic unit - has also been set performance indicators, aimed at ensuring that more evidence is collected by attending more crime scenes. Scenes of crime officers will attend 30 per cent of vehicle crimes, all serious violent crimes and 80 per cent of house burglaries.

New targets for quicker matches of existing fingerprint records and speedier police response, once a match has been made, will allow faster arrests of suspects.

When the review was carried out in May, Thames Valley Police's detection rate was 22 per cent, compared with its target of 26 per cent. Last year, scenes of crimes officers attended 26,600 offences, or 14.15 per cent of all crime reported. Fingerprint or DNA evidence accounted for 918, or 2.5 per cent of all detections.

The Best Value report, the action plan adopted by the police authority, said: "A major challenge for Thames Valley Police is how to improve the detection rate.

"There is evidence that Thames Valley could extend its crime scene examination productively. The use of forensic examination must be viewed as an integral part of an investigation."

The report also found high sickness levels within the department staff and a lack of training for scenes of crime officers, which restricted their attendance at incidents, contributed to the department's capacity problems.

Solutions to tackle both effectively are contained in the action plan.