Getty Nearly a third of arrests in London were of foreign nationals

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Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said 28 to 29 per cent of the capital's 250,000 arrests per year are foreigners, and 55 per cent of those come from the European Union (EU). The head of the Met Police blamed the high number of foreign offenders for Scotland Yard's poor performance in getting criminal cases to court after he was challenged by the London Assembly police and crime committee.

We know that 28 to 29 per cent of the 250,000 arrests we make every year is a foreign national Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe

The Met has a 13 per cent rate of total notifiable offences ending in a charge or summons, compared with up to 16 per cent in other large urban forces such as West Midlands and Greater Manchester police forces. Sir Bernard said the number of foreign nationals being arrested is causing problems because they have to be charged within 24 hours or released, but obtaining their DNA, fingerprints and previous convictions within that time is difficult.

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He said: "It's not that foreigners cause problems, it's just that is what London is like. "We know that 28 to 29 per cent of the 250,000 arrests we make every year is a foreign national. "The challenges that poses, is that we need to have the intelligence on them when they are detained. "We need their criminal conviction history, we need the forensics information - and all of those are challenging if we have to release 90-odd per cent of our suspects within 24 hours."

He said just getting the information to carry forward an interview is difficult within the timeframe. He added: "What I'm not saying is that means we can't do our job, I'm just saying its one of the factors which makes London different."

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Asked whether he thinks Britain should remain in the EU, the police chief said he would not be siding with either the leave or stay campaigns. He said: "It's a little bit easier to work within Europe because we have the EU arrest warrant."

Sir Bernard added if police did not have access to such data immediately it could be a problem. He said: "When you're on the scene of the crime, burglary being the best example, and you have a sample - fingerprints, DNA et cetera - the first test we do of that sample is against the database of known suspects. "If the offender has come from abroad and is here on a visit - it's often the case that they are not in our database."

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