THE number of crimes recorded in Wales has risen by 10 per cent in the last year, with Gwent Police seeing the largest increase of the four regional forces.

Figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that 209,860 crimes were recorded nationally in the year ending June 2017.

More than 20 per cent of that number - 43,078 - were recorded in Gwent, a 14 per cent increase of the 5,000 recorded at the same point last year.

Most of the crimes were for theft offences - 16,367 - while there were 12,288 recorded violent crimes.

A further breakdown reveals that 7,445 instances of criminal damage and arson were reported, alongside 1,451 public order offences, 1,421 drug offences and 1,009 sexual offences.

Commenting on the latest figures, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent, Jeff Cuthbert, said: “The data released today demonstrates that there has been a genuine increase in some crime types in England and Wales.

“Nationally, we see there has been an increase in the number of stalking and harassment, sexual offences and violent crimes recorded.

“Gwent also reflects the increase in these areas and the Office for National Statistics believe there are a number of contributing factors.

“This includes more victims having the confidence to report offences to the police and an improvement in recording practices by police forces nationwide over the last few years.

“We recognise the impact crime has on our communities and I will be reviewing this data in depth with the Chief Constable of Gwent Police to look at the factors driving these changes and how we can work with our partners in to address them.”

John Flatley, head of crime statistics at the ONS, added: “While improvements made by police forces in recording crime are still a factor in the increase, we judge that there have been genuine increases in crime – particularly in some of the low incidence but more harmful categories.

“Police figures cannot provide a good measure of all crime in society, since we know that a large volume of it never comes to their attention.

“The recent increases in recorded crime need to be seen in the context of the overall decline in crime indicated by the Crime Survey for England and Wales.”