WILTSHIRE Police are "still failing some victims of crime" according to a recent inspection into their recording accuracy.

A report published yesterday by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found that the force fails to record over 4,100 reported crimes a year.

But the overall crime data accuracy was graded Good and the inspector said there had been "concerted efforts to improve" since the last report, in 2014, and the overall recording rate was 90.9 per cent.

The force was found to be under-recording violent crimes, especially in domestic incidents, and crimes of rape in connection with modern slavery charges.

In particular, of 314 crimes that HMICFRS deemed to be related to domestic abuse, Wiltshire Police had only recorded 260 and "crime reports went unrecorded with little rationale to explain why".

But the report said safeguarding risk assessments were largely carried out when they needed to be, even if no crime was eventually recorded.

Violent crimes were under-reported by 12.3 per cent, with more than 1,800 a year going unrecorded, and 97.8 per cent of sex offences were recorded, with 74 of 81 audited rape reports recorded accurately.

The inspector said the force "must improve" its collection of information in terms of equality. It said the force recorded age and gender on every occasion but only records other characteristics (race, sexuality, disability, ethnicity and religion) when "determined to be relevant to the offence".

The force was rated outstanding for the leadership and culture from senior officers and the inspector wrote: "Without exception, we found an approach among officers and staff which places the victim at the forefront of their crime-recording decisions."

The inspector also said the force had a "clear commitment to get crime recording right" and concluded that the force had "made good progress in its crime-recording since 2014", adding "however improvements must continue to be made".

"The strong leadership and positive approach among officers and staff towards victims is welcome. However, the force is still failing some victims of crime. It needs to address this by ensuring that its staff and officers fully understand the crime-recording standards expected of them."

Police and Crime Commissioner Angus Macpherson said: “Placing victims and witnesses at the heart of everything we do is one of the priorities in my Police and Crime plan, so I am pleased to see that the crime data integrity report has graded Wiltshire Police as ‘Good’, recognising the changes the force has made to recording practices.

“For the public to have confidence in policing and to allow the police to have a clear understanding of the crime and better use resources, every crime must be recorded properly."