THE Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Gwent has slammed the negative report published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) today as “unfair” and “unjust”.

PCC Ian Johnston said Gwent Police is being “inspected to death” by HMIC and that he will not be accepting the first PEEL report as it does not accurately reflect the force’s work.

“We’re not accepting the report. We think it’s unfair, unjust, it’s lacking in evidence to support some of their outlandish claims.”

- Gwent PCC Ian Johnston

The report states that Gwent Police requires improvement in all three PEEL indicators and makes 111 recommendations to the force.

Mr Johnston said: “The report says that the force is not as effective as it needs to be in cutting crime and anti-social behaviour. They’re worried about it, well I’m not. It’s not a real increase in crime, it’s an increase in the number of offences being recorded."

Mr Johnston said the recurring theme in the report relating to an increase in crime is an "inevitable consequence" of the change in recording practices, which he implemented last year.

“My view is that these reports totally and utterly lack balance," he added. "There’s a growing view that HMIC are trying to justify their huge increase in their budget and whilst I respect their right to inspect us, they should not became a regulator.

“We’re not accepting the report. We think it’s unfair, unjust, it’s lacking in evidence to support some of their outlandish claims.”

Mr Johnston also highlighted that while the HMIC had been given a £9.4 million (77 per cent) uplift in budget, Gwent Police has seen a 20 per cent reduction in its central Government funding resulting in 223 fewer police officers since 2010/11.

He added that he was not being overly defensive about the report and did agree with its recommendations on victim satisfaction.

He added: “The victim satisfaction is not what it should be. I agree with the comment in the report about the need to improve that’s why we're spending a significant amount of money in putting together a Victims Hub that will go live in April.

“We’re now getting inspected to death. It’s costing us in officers, police staff time to facilitate the inspections and also to examine and implement these recommendations.”

Mr Johnston added that the force had been inspected 12 times between January and October this year. He said the inspections have cost the Gwent taxpayer more than £150,000 this year with each inspection involving up to 700 hours of police time.

Mr Johnston also criticised the report for failing to use up-to-date information.

Last week, a Crime Data Integrity report by HMIC highlighted Gwent Police as one of the top performing forces.

He added: “Gwent was only one of two forces in the country to achieve 100 per cent compliance on no-crime decisions and it’s therefore disappointing that the progress we have made in introducing the right culture with regards to crime data accuracy hasn’t been acknowledged in this report."

Mr Johnston added that having discussed each of the points in the report, he is "absolutely satisfied" that Gwent Police is already addressing the issues, aside from the victim satisfaction issue.

He added: "I’m here to scrutinise the Chief Constable and I’m also here to support him and his team. These reports are having an extremely negative effect on the Chief Constable and the public perception of the force at a time when public confidence in the force has increased by four per cent.

“There’s a growing discontent amongst PCCs in England and Wales about the way the HMIC conducts their business."