WHAT THE FORCE SAYS

GMP’S Deputy Chief Constable Ian Pilling said: “We welcome inspection and scrutiny as we are committed to providing victims of crime with the highest standards of service. We are obviously disappointed by some of the findings in the report, particularly where we have let victims down. However, I want to reassure the public that we treat this matter very seriously.

“We have a long-term strategic plan in place to address these issues and that we are determined to make whatever other short-term improvements we need to make and to make them as quickly as possible.

“Although we acknowledge there has been a deterioration in some elements of recording since the last inspection, we have made huge improvements in some elements including rape, sexual offences and many areas of volume crime which are now recorded by our centralised unit.”

He added: “Since spring, there is strong evidence of improved crime recording rates in many relevant areas, so progress has already been made. For example, since June 2020, GMP has increased crime recording rates for domestic abuse by 18 per cent, stalking and harassment by 33 per cent and coercion and control by 30 per cent. We would also like to highlight other findings in the report, which are extremely positive – including our crime recording rates for rape and sexual offences, which have increased.

“The force has also significantly reduced the amount of time taken to answer 101 calls and, subsequently, the abandonment rate – this is despite of the impact Covid has had on resources and staffing.”