POLICE forces are making progress in tackling corruption, according to a report published today by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.

This comes after their assessment of Gwent Police in November, which found good progress had been made since 2012 regarding integrity and transparency.

The report said then: “Gwent has worked hard to instil ethical and professional behaviour; however, more training on integrity issues and efforts to promote confidence in challenging poor behaviour are required.

“Decision making and recording processes in the professional standards department needs to improve.

“Some integrity-related policies need to be reviewed and the management of workflow in the professional standards department should be more efficient.”

According to the new report “Integrity Matters,” the investigating body found no evidence that corruption is endemic in British forces as “the overwhelming majority of officers and staff are honest and professional.”

But the report did find issues of concern around consistency and said some forces lacked the capability to proactively seek out and prevent corruption.

HMI Mike Cunningham said: “Police officers were quick to tell us that they see corrupt colleagues as a betrayal of the vast majority who are honourable, decent and hard-working.

“We found no evidence to suggest corruption was endemic but we know only too well that the corrosive nature of corruption means that even a single case can be damaging to public confidence.

“Police forces have made great strides in tackling misconduct and corruption and now they need to continue that work to focus on proactive, prevention work. At the moment over half of police forces are not seeking out intelligence on corruption proactively; this is a clear area for improvement where they can continue to demonstrate a culture of zero tolerance for misconduct and corruption.”