A vicar listened in stunned disbelief as a police call taker demanded to know his ethnic origins before she would send an officer to investigate a burglary at his church.

The Rev Simon Lane, of St Andrew's Church in Wraysbury, said the operator also wanted to know his date of birth, adding that without the details she could not give him a crime reference number.

The bizarre interrogation was said to be part of a new Home Office initiative to find out what sort of people were reporting crimes to improve clear-up rates.

Mr Lane, 60, had phoned Thames Valley Police to report that St Michael's Church in Horton, where he is also the vicar, had a window smashed during a break-in.

He slammed "barmy, target-obsessed Government officials" and said it was just the latest in a long line of bureaucratic nonsense.

"We are supposed to have a country that is multi-cultural and living as one nation. I thought the buzz words were social cohesion, not being divisive by asking the public what their colour is. I was told it was a legal requirement and I had to give this information - apparently it is because of Government targets."

He said: "Its targets, targets, targets these days. I am surprised the Church of England does not have targets that I have to do 70 funerals a year.

"I said do you want a blood sample and a urine sample?' I was quite polite, I wanted to say a lot more - but I needed the crime reference number for the insurance."

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said initially they had to ask the questions under Home Office guidelines, however, he later made a u-turn saying: "It is considered best practice but there is not a legal requirement for us to ask anybody."

Asked whether police responded to calls quicker or slower depending on whether people gave their origin as white, black or asian, he said a person's ethnic origin and age made no difference to how quickly a call was responded to.