A CHANGE in culture within Gwent Police is the force’s primary focus and not statistics or league tables, a panel was told yesterday.

It comes after a Gwent Police internal review found that 25 out of 50 incidents from last summer had not been recorded in line with Home Office rules.

Gwent Police’s chief constable Jeff Farrar told MPs earlier this week that officers misrecorded incidents when official figures showed crime falling in the region.

But Mr Farrar said he did not think there was wholesale manipulation of figures, despite saying target incentives could lead to officers feeling pressured to avoid reporting crimes.

At a meeting of the Gwent Police and Crime Panel, held at Penallta House in Ystrad Mynach, members were told the decision to publish a report showed the “transparency” of the force.

Ian Johnston, Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), his deputy Paul Harris, and Mr Farrar, all faced questioning from councillors across authorities in Gwent. The trio said the report was necessary and “accurate”.

Mr Johnston said some people within the force had “given up” on recording incidents of crime because of what they had been used to in the past.

The whole purpose of this report, he said, was to find how the force was performing at the time it was done.

Mr Johnston said: “I want to talk about the elephant in the room. What I’m pleased about is some of the stark practices that were going on before are not happening now.

“This report shows that we are transparent – we had to get a report out there.

“But this was a snapshot of mid-July.”