POLITICIANS have said criticisms of Gwent Police published yesterday should be taken seriously after the Police and Crime Commissioner’s dismissal of the report.

The first Peel (police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy) report published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said Gwent Police needs to improve in reducing crime and preventing offending, its investigations, the way it tackles anti-social behaviour and how it deals with reports of domestic abuse.

Labour MP for Newport West Paul Flynn said it was up to Gwent Police to defend itself rather than PCC Ian Johnston.

He said: “It looks as though Johnston has gone native and sees himself as acting as a spin doctor for the police. His job is to keep things objective and examine criticisms of the police.

“He seems to have completely lost his way. This is not his role to be defensive of the police.

“These criticisms are made from a body that has the professional task of examining police standards. These criticisms must be taken seriously and properly addressed. “ Mr Johnston said yesterday that Gwent Police is being “inspected to death” by HMIC and that the first Peel report did not reflect the force’s work.

Jocelyn Davies, AM for South Wales East and Plaid Cymru’s spokeswoman for women and children, said she hoped that Mr Johnston will take on board the findings following his “initial dismissive response”.

She added: “I am disappointed to read HMIC’s report and see that Gwent Police continues to fall short in how they protect and respond to victims of domestic abuse.

“It’s not good enough to claim that tackling domestic abuse is a priority if you then fail to properly protect victims.

“Given a number of high profile cases in recent years, it is particularly worrying that there are still concerns about the initial response to victims.”

William Graham, the Conservative AM for South Wales East, said the purpose of inspections is to raise standards, not to intimidate those being inspected.

He added: “I recall that Gwent Police is a force that has generally a very good record.

“They’ve had a number of awards and have been prominent in reducing offending.

“The PCC has changed from enforcing numerical targets to focusing on the quality of service and that’s got to be a good thing. We’d like to see the positive results of that.”

John Griffiths, Labour AM for Newport East, said: “I’ve always had a good working relationship with the police.

“I’ve been impressed with their community policing model and the way they work with a range of partner organisations.

“When a public service organisation is the subject of a report that suggests considerable improvement should be made and that report is from an authoritative organisation, the findings have to be taken seriously.”