Only a quarter of crimes have been solved in the past year - putting local police among the 10 worst forces in England and Wales.

Figures released by the Home Office have revealed the clear-up rates for all 44 police forces in the country.

Thames Valley Police - which covers Oxfordshire - ranks joint-sixth worst after solving just 25 per cent of crimes.

Last November, the force's former Chief Constable, Peter Neyroud, claimed his officers were more concerned with targets than solving serious crimes.

The worst performing force was the Metropolitan Police in London on 21 per cent, while the best is North Wales at 48 per cent.

The average for clean-up rates in England and Wales, according to the figures, stands at 27 per cent.

Thames Valley deputy Chief Constable Alex Marshall said: "Our sanction detection rate is in line with other forces in the South East.

"We have been concentrating on preventing crime and detecting more serious offences.

"Performance in Oxfordshire compares very favourably with similar police areas and the sanction detection rate currently stands at 28.5 per cent with crime in the county down nine per cent, compared with the same period last year."

The figures were released this week after Home Office Minister Tony McNulty ordered officials to work out the crime detection rates.

In November, Mr Neyroud, who stood down as Chief Constable for Thames Valley two years ago, made a speech claiming his officers had been concentrating on solving lesser crimes to meet detection targets and improve performance statistics.

But his successor, Chief Constable Sara Thornton, said her officers do not simply follow Government targets.

She said detection rates in Oxfordshire were low because police were chasing serious crimes rather than focusing on easier targets to boost statistics.

The four priority crimes for all police officers in Oxfordshire to concentrate on detecting are burglary of a dwelling, robbery, vehicle crime and violence with injury.

In May, police station cleaner Enayit Khalili, 27, was stabbed to death when he answered the door to his home in Fiennes Road, Rose Hill, in Oxford.

Police made a string of arrests, released photos of men they want to interview and offered a reward, but no-one has been caught.

A gang of robbers remain at large after raiding two branches of The Abbey bank, in Abingdon in October and Summertown, Oxford, a month later, stealing tens of thousands of pounds.

Police in Didcot were met with a wall of silence after a gang of yobs left father-of-two John Laing, with a fractured skull and permanently deaf after smashing him in the head with a bottle when he went to the aid of a teenager being attacked.