NORTH-EAST police forces have won Government praise for their commitment to community and race relations.

In a report released yesterday by the Home Office, entitled Winning the Race, Embracing Diversity, Cleveland is named among the top 15 forces in England and Wales.

And, out of ten categories, Durham is recognised as having good practice in three, making progress in six and having only one area in need of development.

Cleveland receives praise for its handling of racist incidents and matters of concern to the gay community.

The report also finds it is making satisfactory progress in eight other areas, ranging from community consultation processes to anti-social behaviour and the recruitment of ethnic minority staff.

It is the third in a series of national surveys into community and race relations.

The recommendations that followed, together with those from the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, resulted in Cleveland police producing a Race Relations Strategy last April.

Its latest move, as reported in yesterday's Northern Echo, has been to devise a Diversity Action Plan tackling issues raised by staff.

Assistant Chief Constable Della Cannings said: "It is due to the strategy that the force is shown in such a good light in yesterday's report, but that is not to say that the force will now be complacent in the area of race relations."

Chief Inspector Kim Hunter, of Durham Police, said: "We are pleased that the report recognises the real progress we have made in the last few years, however there's still a long way to go."

North Yorkshire Police, which was found to need development in most areas, said the research was conducted prior to the implementation of its action plan