More people across Greater Manchester have found significant improvements in the service provided by police, according to a national report.

The Home Office Annual Assessment of Police Performance has show 48.6 per cent of people across the region are happy with police performance - higher than that of comparative force areas.

The number of residents who fear they will be victims of crime such as burglary, car crime and violent crime has also fallen.

The Home Office report also found Greater Manchester Police is performing well, exceeding the standard expected from them in dealing with serious crime and meeting the standard in delivering neighbourhood policing.

Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Peter Fahy said: "Officers have been striving to make sure people feel more satisfied about their dealings with police as the quality of the service we provide to communities is paramount.

"We will continue to put people first and work hard to keep them safe as well as making them feel safer."

The report concluded there had been improvements in all areas and GMP was performing better than comparative forces in bringing offenders to justice.

The percentage of emergency calls answered within the target time of 10 seconds has improved from 88.4 per cent last year to 91.9 per cent.

The figures also show that the gap between arrest rates arising from stop and searches of minority ethnic and white people has narrowed to 0.9 per cent - an improvement of two per cent on last year.

Greater Manchester Police was also evaluated on its use of resources. Figures show minority ethnic recruitment has increased from 3.6 per cent in 2006/7 to 5.2 per cent.

Women now comprise almost one quarter of the force - an increase of 0.9 per cent, which is higher than that of comparative forces.