Sussex has the second worst record in the country for the time taken to sentence hardcore teenage criminals.

The average time between the arrest and sentencing of the persistent young offenders was 92 days in the three months to September this year.

The figure is an improvement of one day on the previous three months.

But the county is lagging a long way behind the national average of just 70 days. Only Derbyshire has a worse record.

When they were elected in 1997, Labour pledged to reduce the average time it takes to get persistent young offenders into court from the time they were arrested to 71 days by May 2002.

Sussex had been making good progress and had cut the figure from 147 days in 1997 to 84 by the end of last year.

But that progress had stalled over the last year. Police, court staff and other criminal justice agencies are now running out of time to meet the pledge.

Nationally, the benchmark figure of 71 days has now been achieved by 27 of the 42 criminal justice areas.

Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes said meeting the target would bring real benefits.

She added: "By reducing the time taken to bring young offenders to justice, the chances of their re-offending are reduced and the effectiveness of the system is increased."