For the first time in over three years, Hampshire Police say they are on top of recruitment problems which have plagued the force.

Maureen Adamson, director of personnel, told the Police Authority that the force should be up to full strength within two months.

"There's no problem with recruiting at the minute. It could be better, but compared to where we have been in the last few years, this is a good position to be in.

"It's the best we've been for the past three and a half years," she added.

One explanation for the improvement in recruitment came from assistant personnel director, Claire McKenna, who said changes in the selection procedure had speeded up applications. However, this had not affected standards, she said: "We're reviewing it at the minute just to reassure ourselves."

But Miss McKenna said there were still problems retaining staff in the north of the county, in places such as Basingstoke.

"We get more leavers from north-east Hampshire and we've set up a working party to look at why," she said.

As part of the scheme to help retain staff, officers around Basingstoke could be moving into specially-bought police housing.

Plans to buy 10 homes and let them cheaply to officers - either sharing or on their own - were approved by the personnel committee and now just need the go-ahead from police authority finance chiefs.

The meeting, at the Hampshire County Council offices, in Winchester, also heard that there were currently 48 police officers from ethnic minorities. At about 1.4% of the entire Hampshire Police Force, this fell just below target levels.