A DAMNING attack on the maintenance standards of the Metropolitan Police fleet was launched after it was revealed up to a quarter of its vehicles are off the road for repairs every day. Police Minister Charles Clarke revealed in the House of Commons that during April, 864 of the force's 3,991 vehicles were off the road for maintenance each day. This has been blamed on a recall of the entire front-line fleet following fears over safety standards, but in January there were 532 vehicles off the road each day, 427 in February and 405 in March.

Shadow Police Minister Oliver Heald, who raised the matter after concerned police officers approached him about safety standards on the fleet, said: 'There are serving police officers driving these cars, so the number off the road each day is shocking.'

Venson Group, which won the seven-year outsourcing contract to maintain police vehicles a year ago, refused to add comment to statements already given over the issue, in which it said: 'Recent quality audits have shown that some work has not met that standard required by both Venson and the Met.'

It added that since the start of the contract, there had been more than 1,200 accidents, while pointing out it had completed 51,250 accident, mechanical repair and recovery procedures.' Concerns were raised over outsourcing at the recent Association of Police Fleet Managers annual conference, where in-house staff were warned they had to balance safety with cutting costs to avoid losing their jobs.