Police Data Quality 2006/07, published today, examines how well the police record information reported to them by victims and witnesses. Its findings show that the police are putting crime recording at the heart of their efforts to target their resources where they will have the greatest impact. However, despite the generally positive picture, 26 per cent of police bodies have not sustained previous levels of performance.

This year, for the first time, the data quality report also includes an analysis of how well the police record anti-social behaviour incidents that are not classified as crimes. Anti-social behaviour incidents is one category within the National Standard for Incident Recording (NSIR) which the police service has introduced this year. Only 28 per cent of police authorities and forces are good or excellent in this anti-social behaviour category, possibly reflecting that this is the first year that this category of performance has been assessed.

The findings show that the police and their partners in local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) or Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) in Wales, need to improve how they use and share data on crime and anti-social behaviour to help them address neighbourhood and community priorities.

Auditor General for Wales, Jeremy Colman, said today:
“It is encouraging to see that police forces and authorities are consistently improving their recording of crime data, although South Wales Police Authority still has some way to go to bring itself in line with its Welsh counterparts. More work is also needed to improve incident recording standards across Wales and England and the recommendations in this report should go some way to encourage this.”

Notes to Editors

• NCRS was introduced in 2002 and this is the fourth year that the Audit Commission and Wales Audit Office have reviewed compliance with it. For the first time, our work has focused on the progress made by police authorities and forces to implement NSIR and the quality of data used in user satisfaction surveys.
• Auditors reviewed crime data in nine categories – disturbance, domestic violence, racial incidents, violent crime, criminal damage, burglary, vehicle crime, acquisitive crime such as personal robbery and theft from a person and firearms related incidents. For NSIR, data was tested from the anti-social behaviour category.
• NCRS was introduced to raise data quality standards and improve the consistency of all police authorities and forces in collecting and recording crime. It places a high emphasis on recording crimes as described by a witness or victim
• NSIR is a standard for capturing information about incidents notified or reported to the police. It was introduced by the Home Office, Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Police Authorities following a review in 2003.
• The grading system for 2006/07 is different to 2003/04 and 2004/05 when police authorities and forces were given a traffic light rating of green, amber or red. The four-band rating system was introduced in 2005/06 to match that used in the Policing and Performance Assessment Framework.

• The Wales Audit Office mission is to promote improvement, so that people in Wales benefit from accountable, well-managed public services that offer the best possible value for money. It is also committed to identify and spreading good practice across the Welsh public sector.
• The Wales Audit Office was created in April 2005 through the Public Audit (Wales) Act, 2004, which expanded the functions of the Auditor General for Wales and enabled the transfer of staffs from the Audit Commission in Wales and National Audit Office in Wales to his employment.
• The Audit Commission is an independent body responsible for ensuring that public money is spent economically, efficiently and effectively, to achieve high quality local services for the public.