Devon and Cornwall Police has today pledged to continue work "at pace" to improve its service after a critical report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).

In the full report on the inspection, which started in early 2022, the force has been told to make urgent improvements after it was found to be inadequate in areas including recording data about crime, responding to the public and managing offenders.

The report said "the force is unable to adequately manage registered sexual and violent offenders", failed to record more than 18,000 crimes over a one-year period and expressed concern about call response times, with some people waiting "over an hour" after dialling 101.

The news comes after, in October 2022, the force was placed under enhanced monitoring by HMICFRS to provide additional scrutiny.

In a statement today, Devon and Cornwall Police said since the inspection a range of improvements have been made, including boosting resources in the problem areas, reviewing policies and procedures, as well as working with other forces to identify best practice.

New Chief Constable Will Kerr said he is confident this work has already had a significant positive impact.

He said: “I am under no illusion that the areas highlighted by the Inspectorate will be concerning to our communities, but I am confident that we have made significant improvements to the areas identified and progress continues to be made at pace.

“For crime recording, a new governance structure is now in place to scrutinise our compliance with national standards, and we have invested in resources for our auditing capability. We have also introduced a new system, which will improve our crime data integrity and we have already seen an overall uplift in compliance.

“For answering emergency and non-emergency calls, we have recently introduced a triage service, which means that the caller speaks to a person who first identifies what assistance the caller requires. This has allowed us to focus on improving our response to 999 calls, with 90 per cent being answered within 10 seconds in January 2023. This is a five per cent increase since the inspection was carried out.

"Working with our Police and Crime Commissioner, we have also re-opened six front desks to improve public access to our service. We anticipate further improvements in how the public can contact us with the introduction of the Single Online Home website. We know how important this service is to the public and are committed to doing better.

“The other area identified by the Inspectorate was the management of sexual or violent offenders. We have already increased the number of supervisors in the unit to ensure workloads are managed in line with national guidance and our neighbourhood policing teams are also now attending visits.”

In its report, the Inspectorate highlighted several areas where the Force continues to perform well, including understanding the needs and expectations of local communities with a focus on vulnerability and working effectively with partners locally.

Mr Kerr continued: “We are determined to do all we can to ensure that Devon and Cornwall remains one of the safest places in the country to live and visit. I am reassured also that public confidence in us remains high at 80 per cent and compares very favourably in comparison to other forces' survey results.

“We have made some very positive steps and continue to make significant progress. I am confident that my officers, staff and volunteers will deliver the service improvements required across our communities.”