Work to rehabilitate persistent young offenders in Suffolk has been criticised by an MP.

Latest Government figures show there are 207 persistent young offenders in the county who committed 407 offences during 2008.

And according to David Ruffley MP this is not good enough and is piling pressure on the police.

The Bury St Edmunds MP, who is also the shadow minister for police reform, said: 'The number of persistent young offenders is still too high. This poses as massive problem for the police who have to deal with the same young criminals time after time after time.

'It is like a revolving door and that is because rehabilitation is not working well enough.'

The figures showed the number of persistent young offenders in the neighbouring counties of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire are lower with 156 and 191 respectively. In Essex the figure stands at 396.