Thousands of violent crimes, and sex offences went unrecorded by Gwent Police, an inspection of figures found last week.

Inspectors from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary unearthed over 5,000 crime reports which went unmentioned by Gwent Police, exposing that almost ten per cent of crime reports were not being recorded.

These included 1,800 violent crimes, 90 sexual offences, 44 cases of domestic abuse, and one vulnerable victim crime.

“Incorrect recording decisions are often caused by officers and staff not understanding the crime-recording rules,” said the report.

“The force has provided additional training.

“But we found that some staff and officers still don’t properly understand the crime-recording requirements for: common assault, harassment, malicious communications, and public order offences.”

“Gwent Police has made good progress in its crime recording since 2014 and continues to work on further improvements.

“The strong leadership and positive approach among most officers and staff towards victims is welcome. It gives us confidence that the force can respond quickly and effectively to the outstanding issues we found in this inspection.

“We welcome the force’s continuing efforts to address the remaining gaps in its crime recording arrangements identified in this inspection,” it read.

“We expect the force to make progress against the areas for improvement we make in this report. We will monitor this progress.”

Police and Crime Commissioner, Jeff Cuthbert, said, “The report praises Gwent Police for its ethical, victim-focused crime recording, in particular the efforts which have been made around improving first point of contact.

“I do acknowledge that there are some areas in which Gwent Police does need to improve upon, primarily around training and awareness-raising, and the report makes a number of recommendations for improvement.

“I will discuss these findings with the chief constable and continue to monitor progress against all recommendations in order to ensure crime is recorded effectively and that victims of crime in Gwent receive the best possible service.”

Gwent’s Chief Constable, Julian Williams, said the force’s focus on victims of crime would remain at the heart of its policing.

“Victims are at the heart of everything we do and remain our priority.

“We have specialist teams and officers focussed on our most vulnerable and we continue to introduce new measures to provide support for these people.

“We’ve recently introduced a crisis intervention team in our control room so there is a specialist response to domestic abuse calls, offering further support for both our own staff taking these calls and the victims themselves.

“We’ve seen an increase in the use of domestic violence protection orders used to protect victims of such abuse and are also working directly with victims to discuss their experiences of our service to ensure we continue to improve.

“I’m pleased to see that the report highlights our commitment in this area along with our dedication to act on previous recommendations which have all resulted in an improved service to our communities.”