The Conservatives will cut bureaucracy and paperwork for police officers, so they can spend more time in the community.

Chris Grayling, shadow home secretary, told the Conservative Party Conference that “criminals aren’t getting caught because the police are stuck at desks doing paperwork”.

He said: “It’s time for real change. It’s time for a new deal with our police. We’ll deal with the things that frustrate them. We’ll get rid of the mountains of bureaucracy that make it easier to cut corners.

“We’ll provide them with proper protection against violence. We’ll get rid of the target culture that makes it easier to issue a caution than to prosecute. And we’ll give them back more power to charge criminals themselves.”

But Grayling offered the conference no indication of how he might look to implement these changes to the police force, should the Conservatives win the next general election.

He added the Conservatives would take steps to tighten up the points-based immigration system by setting an annual cap on the number of people who could come and work in the UK, and tackle the abuse of the student visa system.

In a fringe meeting yesterday Damien Green, the shadow immigration minister, revealed the Tories would look to increase the number of highly skilled migrants entering the country, but cut back on low skilled migrant numbers.

Meanwhile the shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve told the conference that a Tory government would look to provide prisoners with skills to help them re-enter the workplace after their imprisonment.

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He said: “Prisoners should be put to productive work in prison. If we improve the skills of offenders in our prisons then we improve their chances of getting a job. A Conservative government will get prisoners learning skills, earning their keep, and paying for their crimes.”

Grieve added the party would “give frontline probation staff the direction they need”, and would “recognise the tough job prison officers do”.