In 2023–2025, we carried out a PEEL inspection of Gwent Police. PEEL stands for police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy.
We inspected how well the force performed in several areas of policing. Most of these areas were then graded as outstanding, good, adequate, requires improvement or inadequate.
Find out more about Gwent Police
More information about the PEEL assessments
Our inspection assessed how good Gwent Police is in ten areas of policing. We make graded judgments in nine of these ten as follows:
We also inspected how effective a service Gwent Police gives to victims of crime. We don’t make a graded judgment for this area.
We set out our detailed findings about things the force is doing well and where the force should improve in the rest of this report.
We also assess the force’s performance in a range of other areas and we report on these separately. We make graded judgments for some of these areas.
In 2014, we introduced our police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy (PEEL) inspections, which assess the performance of all 43 police forces in England and Wales. Since then, we have been continuously adapting our approach.
We have moved to a more intelligence-led, continual assessment approach, rather than the annual PEEL inspections we used in previous years. Forces are assessed against the characteristics of good performance, set out in the PEEL Assessment Framework 2023–2025, and we more clearly link our judgments to causes of concern and areas for improvement.
It isn’t possible to make direct comparisons between the grades awarded in this PEEL inspection and those from the previous cycle of PEEL inspections. This is because we have increased our focus on making sure forces are achieving appropriate outcomes for the public, and in some cases we have changed the aspects of policing we inspect.
It is important to recognise that forces in Wales operate in a different context to those in England. Although policing and justice aren’t devolved to Wales, essential services such as healthcare, accommodation, education and social services are. This means that Welsh police and justice activity take place in unique performance and legislative contexts. In Wales, devolved and non-devolved organisations work in partnership to give local people the best possible level of service. Sometimes this means forces in Wales need to comply with both English and Welsh regulatory requirements.
Our reports contain references to, among other things, ‘national’ definitions, priorities, policies, systems, responsibilities and processes.
In some instances, ‘national’ means applying to England or Wales, or England and Wales. In others, it means applying to England, Wales and Scotland, or the whole of the United Kingdom.
I am satisfied with some aspects of the performance of Gwent Police in keeping people safe, reducing crime and providing victims with an effective service, but there are areas in which the force needs to improve.
The force’s senior leadership team has changed substantially during the year of our inspection, with the appointment of a new chief constable and several chief officer positions being occupied on a temporary basis. The new leadership team is changing the force’s operating model. It has begun work on several programmes to help the force access operational information more easily and to improve how efficiently it operates.
We found that the pace and timing with which leaders communicated this change has led to uncertainty among the workforce. I will be closely monitoring how the changes to the way the force operates result in improvements that help it better meet the public’s needs.
Gwent Police is investing in the development and diversity of its leaders. It equips its personnel to uphold high standards of behaviour and fair treatment. Reassuringly, feedback from the workforce indicates that the force has created an ethical working environment where supervisors challenge discriminatory behaviour.
The force is outstanding at recording crime promptly and accurately, particularly crime involving sexual offences and antisocial behaviour. Gwent Police also understands its daily demand well and makes sure that its operational priorities receive focus. The force has improved how quickly it answers 999 calls. But it still needs to improve how quickly it attends calls for service, and how it manages risk in relation to incidents it can’t attend promptly.
The force is improving the service it provides to victims of rape and other serious crime. But overall, it brings too few offenders to justice and too many of its investigations lack effective supervision.
The force has revised governance structures for protecting vulnerable people, but this hasn’t yet translated into effective safeguarding arrangements. We found that some teams have too few skilled staff to keep pace with demand, resulting in delays and a lack of quality assurance. The force also takes too few opportunities to use disclosure schemes and preventative orders to protect people at risk of serious harm and needs to improve how it uses bail to protect victims and prevent re-offending.
I will continue to monitor the force’s progress in addressing these concerns over the coming months.
HM Inspector of Constabulary
Using the College of Policing leadership standards as a framework, in this section we set out the most important findings relating to the force’s leadership at all levels.
During 2024, movement in the chief officer team meant that, at times, more than half its personnel were in temporary promotions. The chief officer team is now more stable and the force continues to develop its senior leaders.
Senior leaders have responded well to workforce concerns about a lack of visibility and clarity about force priorities. They increased internal communication and interaction with officers and staff at all levels. The force should communicate its plans for organisational change to its workforce with more clarity and timeliness.
Gwent Police has well established programmes to develop its first-line and middle level leaders’ operational and pastoral skills. It has also committed to a College of Policing training pilot called Leading Inclusive Teams. The force still needs to make sure that it has enough operationally effective sergeants.
The force’s investment in developing and mentoring its female workforce has translated into impressive levels of successful promotions. However, it needs to further develop its support for staff from other underrepresented groups.
Gwent Police has made sure it has strong leadership structures in critical areas, such as the control room. It trains superintendents to mentor aspiring leaders.
The force understands its well-being challenges and it trains its leaders to support and retain their staff. Most managers feel equipped with enough leadership training to effectively carry out their roles.
More detail on Gwent Police’s leadership is included in the main body of the report.
The reducing crime assessment sets out what Gwent Police is doing to reduce crime and how effective this action is. This assessment doesn’t include police recorded crime figures. This is because they can be affected by variations and changes in recording policy and practice, making it difficult to draw comparisons over time.
The force promptly answers emergency calls for service from the public and accurately assesses the risk to callers. The force has effective management of demand in its control room. But Gwent Police needs to improve how promptly it attends incidents; in particular those involving domestic abuse victims. The force should make sure that it updates callers about attendance delays. It should reduce the number of callers who abandon non-emergency calls before they get an answer.
The force records crime to an outstanding level of accuracy but must improve its recording of victims’ protected characteristics.
The force has improved its recording of reasonable grounds for stop and search but needs to understand the under-recording of the use of force. And it needs to improve internal and external governance and scrutiny arrangements for both stop and search powers and use of force.
In some areas, Gwent Police works well with social care and other partner agencies to reduce crime and disorder. It uses Safer Streets funding to prevent crime and improve the resilience of communities. But it needs to make sure it has a sustainably resourced neighbourhood policing model. And the neighbourhood policing team should have the space to consistently focus on its core responsibilities, such as problem-solving.
The force has established multi-agency governance relationships for protecting vulnerable people. But it needs systems and enough properly trained staff to manage the risks to vulnerable victims with other partner agencies.
Gwent Police has effective, satisfactorily trained teams dedicated to the lifetime management of sexual and violent offenders. But it doesn’t yet effectively use bail or protective measures, such as civil orders, to deter re-offending and protect victims from future harm.
More detail on what Gwent Police is doing to reduce crime is included in the main body of the report.
This section describes our assessment of the service Gwent Police provides to victims. This is from the point of reporting a crime and throughout the investigation. As part of this assessment, we reviewed 100 case files.
When the police close a case of a reported crime, they assign it an ‘outcome type’. This describes the reason for closing it.
We selected 100 cases to review, including at least 20 that the force had closed with the following outcome type:
Although our victim service assessment is ungraded, it influences graded judgments in the other areas we have inspected.
The force answers emergency calls quickly. However, it needs to reduce the number of non-emergency calls where the caller hangs up before a call handler answers. In their calls, call handlers always use a structured process that assesses threat, harm, risk and vulnerability. In most cases, call handlers identify repeat victims. They are polite and give advice on crime prevention and on how to preserve evidence.
On most occasions, the force responds to calls for service appropriately. But sometimes it doesn’t respond within set timescales. It doesn’t always inform victims of delays, meaning that victims’ expectations aren’t always met. This may cause them to lose confidence and to disengage with the process. The force doesn’t always complete appropriate risk assessments for victims and others when it should.
The force has effective crime-recording processes. It makes sure that it records nearly all crimes correctly and promptly.
We set out more details about the force’s crime recording in the ‘Recording data about crime’ section.
In most cases, the force investigates crimes in a timely way. But it doesn’t always complete relevant and proportionate lines of enquiry. The force doesn’t always supervise investigations well or keep victims regularly updated. Victims are more likely to have confidence in a police investigation when they receive regular updates.
A thorough investigation increases the likelihood that the force will identify and arrest suspected perpetrators, providing a positive result for the victim. In some cases, the force took victim personal statements, which give victims the opportunity to describe how that crime has affected their lives.
When victims withdraw support for an investigation, the force considers progressing the case without the victim’s support. This can be an important way of safeguarding the victim and preventing further offences.
The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime (‘the Victims’ Code’) requires forces to carry out a needs assessment at an early stage to determine whether victims need additional support. The force doesn’t always carry out these assessments or record all requests for additional support. The force doesn’t always refer victims to specialist support organisations.
The force mostly closes crimes with the appropriate outcome type. It doesn’t always record a clear rationale for using a certain outcome and this isn’t always effectively supervised. Gwent Police asks for victims’ views when deciding which outcome type to assign to a closed investigation. When appropriate, the force can provide an auditable record of victim’s wishes. The force informs victims of the outcome code assigned to the investigation.
Gwent Police is outstanding at recording crime.
The Home Office Counting Rules, which provide the standard for crime recording in England and Wales, have changed since the last time we inspected the force for crime data integrity.
This change mainly relates to the way forces record violent crime. This means we can no longer compare the findings from this audit to those from previous audits.
We estimate that Gwent Police is recording 95.6 percent (+/- 2.3 percentage points) of all reported crime (excluding fraud).
We estimate that the force is recording 94.5 percent (+/- 4.2 percentage points) of violent offences.
We estimate that the force is recording 98.0 percent (+/- 2.4 percentage points) of sexual offences.
The force’s data for victims of crime shows that age and gender are well recorded. Ethnicity is less well recorded, and other protected characteristics aren’t well recorded. The force should collect this information to understand the extent to which crime affects each protected group, and how this differs from those without the protected characteristics. This will help the force find out whether it needs to respond differently for these victims.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to crime data integrity.
The force records rape offences accurately. In our audit, we found that Gwent Police should have recorded 36 crimes of rape, and it correctly recorded all 36 crimes. Rape is one of the most serious crimes a victim can experience. Therefore, it is especially important that forces record these crimes accurately to make sure victims receive the service and support they expect and deserve.
The force records all crimes when victims experience antisocial behaviour. We examined 50 incidents. We found the force should have recorded 18 crimes, and all 18 were correctly recorded. Victims of antisocial behaviour are often subjected to abuse and torment for substantial periods of time. It is important that forces record crimes to help provide an effective service to tackle antisocial behaviour.
Gwent Police is adequate at using police powers and treating people fairly and respectfully.
Gwent Police’s coercive powers board provides governance and oversight of the use of force. It scrutinises a wide range of data to consider performance themes. But the force’s recording of this power is not always accurate. So the board is using data that isn’t always reliable.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Gwent Police recorded 6,331 use of force incidents. This is 3,223 fewer incidents than we estimate it should have recorded, based on the number of arrests in the same period. This could mean that officers and staff aren’t recording all occasions when they use force.
The force told us it has been educating staff and officers about their obligations to report use of force. But it also told us that 13.9 percent fewer use of force forms were submitted in the year ending 30 September 2024 compared to the year ending 30 September 2023. The force explained that if multiple officers use force on a person, they may each submit a separate form to record this. But the duplicates may not mention relevant factors influencing their use of force, such as the person’s mental health. This suggests that recording hasn’t yet improved.
People from ethnic minority backgrounds account for 5.8 percent of the Gwent population, but for 9.0 percent of use of force incidents and 8.8 percent of arrests. The force has amended its use of force reporting form to accommodate the self‑defined ethnicity of subjects. But it doesn’t yet have a clear process to compare officer-defined and self-defined ethnicity. So the force can’t yet be confident that it knows if, and how much, officers use force disproportionately.
The force has established quality assurance processes to review the use of conducted energy devices using the National Police Chiefs’ Council use of force criteria. It shares each review with the regional lead for added scrutiny.
However, scrutiny and quality assurance for other use of force is inconsistent and incomplete. In August and September 2024, we jointly inspected Gwent Police custody facilities with the Health Inspectorate Wales. Inspectors found little quality assurance of incidents or monitoring of the use of force at a strategic or operational level. The inspectors concluded that Gwent Police couldn’t show that when it used force or restraint in custody, it was necessary, justified and proportionate.
Some sergeants told us that they review all use of force by their staff, but that they don’t review body-worn video footage. This means they can’t comment definitively upon whether the use of control and restraint techniques is appropriate.
Sergeants also told us that they wouldn’t necessarily know about use of force during incidents occurring outside custody centres. This is because its crime and incident recording system (Niche) doesn’t automatically notify them. Gwent Police can’t yet be confident that every incident where its officers and staff use force is appropriately quality assured.
The force reviews dip samples of records internally to scrutinise use of stop and search powers, but it doesn’t do the same for use of force. Gwent Police should make sure that the oversight of use of force is robust.
Encouragingly, as part of its new operating model, the force has created a new chief inspector post. This post oversees the operational leadership of three newly appointed inspectors, dedicated to overseeing stop and search, use of force and working with communities. The force told us the new structure would be in place from January 2025.
The force has independent oversight of stop and search and use of force in the form of external scrutiny panels. The external scrutiny panel for stop and search is run in partnership with the office of the police and crime commissioner (OPCC). The panel views body-worn video footage of three or four stop and search and use of force encounters at each meeting.
But the panel only met twice in 2024. Meetings were cancelled due to the panel members not being available. The meetings are too infrequent and consider too few cases. And the panel’s work isn’t mentioned on the force’s public-facing website.
The panels are comprised of OPCC representatives, senior Gwent police leaders, independent advisory group members and partner agencies, such as the Youth Offending Service. But the meetings don’t include any lay members of the public. And they don’t include people with lived experience of being searched or of having force used upon them, such as young people.
We found the force has no clear plan to increase the frequency and diversity of its panel meetings. Putting a plan in place is important to reassure the public of the value of its external scrutiny arrangements.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to police powers and treating people fairly and respectfully.
During our inspection, we reviewed a sample of 255 stop and search records from 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024. Based on this sample, we estimate that 81.6 percent (+/- 4.5 percentage points) of all stop and searches by the force during this period had reasonable grounds recorded. This is broadly unchanged compared with the findings from our previous review of records from 1 January to 31 December 2021, when we found 76.6 percent (+/- 5.2 percentage points) of stop and searches had reasonable grounds recorded.
Of the records we reviewed for stop and searches on people who self-identified as from an ethnic minority background, 25 of 31 had reasonable grounds recorded. However, our audit found that 652 records were recorded as ‘unknown’ (not stated or refused) self-defined ethnicity. This means that self-defined ethnicity was ‘unknown’ in 22.9 percent of the cases we examined. The force couldn’t provide the percentage of searches with missing self-defined ethnicity recording from its own data.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Black or Black British people were 3.7 times more likely to be stopped for a search in Gwent, compared to 3.6 times overall in England and Wales. The force knows it still needs to further reduce its disproportionality. But this is an improvement on the year ending 31 March 2023, when Black or Black British people were 6.3 times more likely to be stopped for a search in Gwent. However, the force website lacks comment or explanation about its stop and search disproportionality figures.
The force maintains consistently high personal safety training attendance. This includes training in how to use force lawfully and fairly. The force told us that, in 2024, 98 percent of officers and 91 percent of police staff attended training if required to do so. The training is scenario-based and we found that it tests trainees’ understanding of their powers during the debrief.
The force also told us that 2,311 staff had received the No Boundaries anti-racism, diversity and equality training. Additionally, the force has given the College of Policing’s Upstander training to 177 of its staff, as part of its work to implement the recommendations of the Angiolini Inquiry relating to the elimination of sexism, misogyny and racism. The force told us the programme will continue in 2025.
Most stop and search encounters between Gwent Police and members of the public can be scrutinised using body-worn video. The force told us its compliance in the use of body-worn video was consistently at or above 95 percent from April to September 2024. The force also told us that it provided stop and search training sessions to 176 officers between August and October 2024, with a further 182 scheduled to be trained from March 2025. However, this represents a relatively small proportion of its officers who may need to use stop and search powers.
The force told us its continuous improvement team audits 100 stop and search encounters each month. The process includes the viewing of body-worn video footage related to those cases. This adds a layer of scrutiny to that provided by first-line supervisors. When the team considers recorded grounds for a search insufficient, it emails feedback to the officer.
But officers told us that the feedback didn’t help them understand how they should improve. We found that emails merely informed officers that they had failed to record reasonable grounds while supplying a link to training material. But the emails don’t clarify the reason why the team considers the recorded grounds insufficient.
The force needs to continue to train a greater proportion of officers in the use of stop and search. And it needs to make sure its scrutiny feedback is detailed enough to promote improved practice.
Gwent Police’s coercive powers board considers analytical data about the age of people who have been stopped and searched or have had force used against them. The force requires its officers to submit public protection notices when they stop and search children. But it told us that it doesn’t yet have an equivalent policy when children have force used against them. This means safeguarding partners, such as children’s social care services, may be unaware when and why children have been forcibly restrained.
Reliable, accurate recording and sharing of data would help Gwent Police identify children who may be at risk of harm or of becoming involved in criminality.
Gwent Police is adequate at prevention and deterrence.
Neighbourhood policing officers are responsible for problem-solving and getting local communities involved in crime prevention. But the force often diverts neighbourhood policing officers away from this important work to other duties. Reasons for this include providing support to response policing by attending emergency or priority incidents
During our inspection, we learned of many examples of neighbourhood police officers being regularly diverted from their duties, both to emergency incidents and wider duties. Examples included collecting drugs seized at ports and airports well outside the force area, dealing with reports of illegal possession of XL Bully dogs and acting as detention officers in custody suites. The force also often requires crime and disorder reduction officers to support court hearings for Domestic Violence Protection Orders at short notice, which they don’t feel trained for. These commitments often mean cancelling planned work with communities and partner agencies.
Police community support officers (PCSOs) told us that the force sent them to incidents they aren’t trained or equipped to deal with. These included road accidents, reports of domestic abuse or of people threatening violence, sometimes with weapons. Very often, the force control room assigns tasks to PCSOs via email, rather than through the force’s command and control or crime recording system. This means that neighbourhood policing leaders are unaware whether PCSOs are being assigned appropriate tasks.
Many neighbourhood policing staff reported low morale and infrequent contact with sergeants and inspectors.
From January 2025, neighbourhood policing forms one of the three pillars of Gwent Police’s new operating model. At the time of our inspection, the force had yet to decide the optimum number of skilled staff required. It is too early to judge how effectively its new structures will translate into stable and consistent neighbourhood policing.
The force should make sure that it can effectively understand why officers in neighbourhood teams are being diverted away from their duties or assigned inappropriate tasks and mitigate against this.
Gwent Police has a dedicated member of staff responsible for reviewing and quality assuring problem-solving plans, providing tactical advice and sharing good practice. Several neighbourhood policing staff told us senior leaders promote the use of problem-solving. They also told us that they had received problem-solving training as part of their All-Wales neighbourhood policing course. The force stores successful problem-solving plans as examples of good practice on its intranet.
But we found the approach to problem-solving is inconsistent. We learned from staff within problem-solving hubs that although they focus on crime prevention, they have little involvement in problem-solving. We audited problem-solving plans and found that some were well researched and used a partnership approach. But too many lacked evidence of multi-agency involvement, with little analysis to justify creation of a plan.
Many plans hadn’t been reviewed within the timescales expected by the force, nor evaluated against the initial objectives. The force’s governance meetings highlighted that it doesn’t update problem-solving plans frequently enough. And rises in neighbourhood crime, such as thefts from motor vehicles, didn’t always have associated plans for reduction. While the force did store problem-solving plans on its intranet, not all officers were aware of this or how to find them.
The force should make sure that it has consistent management and oversight of effective problem-solving.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to prevention and deterrence.
In January 2025, Gwent Police introduced its new operating model. This moved away from a structure aligned to the local policing area to one aligned with force functions. As a result, neighbourhood policing has its own dedicated senior leadership to focus on performance, resourcing and skills.
The force has also published its 2024–2028 neighbourhood policing strategy. This strategy reflects its values, the Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner’s Police, Crime and Justice Plan, Policing Vision 2030 and the College of Policing Modernising Neighbourhood Policing guidelines.
But at the time of our inspection, few staff could explain to us how their work related to the strategy. And this strategy still refers to the local policing area model of governance, rather than the force’s new operating model.
The force should make sure that its new operating model effectively develops the new approach to neighbourhood policing.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Gwent Police recorded 10,672 antisocial behaviour incidents. This is a 24 percent increase when compared to the year ending 31 March 2023 (8,619 antisocial behaviour incidents). In the same period, the force issued 116 antisocial behaviour orders, which is 17 percent more than the year ending 31 March 2023 (99 antisocial behaviour orders). The force needs to make sure it is using all the powers available to it to reduce antisocial behaviour.
We found examples of neighbourhood policing tasking documents which are researched, compiled and updated by crime and disorder reduction officers. This allows the force to brief neighbourhood policing teams and assign tasks to them using current information about local developing crime trends, vulnerable victims and dangerous offenders. When local briefing and task assignment works well, neighbourhood teams achieve good results for their communities. For example, the force told us that, in 2024, the Newport West team had executed over 40 search warrants in connection with the suspected misuse of drugs or illegal possession of XL Bully dogs. The team had also worked with trading standards staff to seize more that £2 million of illegal cigarettes, tobacco and vapes.
The force told us that it has used analysis of population based antisocial behaviour to identify 18 crime and antisocial behaviour hot spots. These pinpoint problem areas and use a mapping tool to show where problem-solving plans are in place. Officers carry out high visibility foot patrols using Home Office Safer Streets funded overtime. The force electronically monitors where and for how long officers patrol by tracking their radio sets and by officers using QR codes to log their activity.
Additionally, the force told us that it has helped to supply 1,700 homes with CCTV, doorbell cameras and other security measures. The ‘We Don’t Buy Crime’ team continues to advise businesses on crime prevention. The force has given trading standards staff and many second-hand retailers and rural businesses training and equipment, such as Smartwater, to help identify stolen property.
PCSOs from the NXTGen youth engagement team and local ward teams use a gaming van, purchased and equipped by the force, when they attend schools and local events. The force estimates that 200 to 400 children visit the van at these events. This lets PCSOs offer advice and awareness about the impact of knife crime, substance abuse and vandalism. The force has also contributed to building a night youth shelter in Tredegar Park and to 18 months of youth intervention work in Blaenau Gwent.
The force has used surveys to understand the impact of its activity on public confidence. It uses Facebook, TikTok, X, Instagram and Snapchat to make sure that it reaches the people who may encounter or be affected by its activity.
In July 2024, the force established Respect Rhymney. This is a Clear, Hold and Build approach to reduce long-standing antisocial behaviour, drugs supply and violence in deprived communities by organised criminal groups. The force communicated its plans through surveys with residents. It agreed joint enforcement action with the Safer Caerphilly community safety partnership and trading standards. To address this criminal behaviour, the force executed drugs warrants, resulting in arrests and prosecutions and increased officer patrols and vehicle seizures. The force is still finishing this phase and has plans with the local authority to get the community involved and promote crime prevention activities. This activity isn’t yet complete but is a promising initiative.
We found that analysts supply local performance meetings with information about long-term crime trends and prolific offenders. This includes repeat locations for offending, down to street-by-street detail. This information allows the force to effectively brief local teams. For example, in Monmouthshire, in response to an increase in shoplifting, proactive teams carried out an operation to arrest suspected prolific offenders. The force is also developing Shop Watch with local businesses. Gwent Police told us it has seen a reduction in offences in the area.
The force works with communities who may have less confidence in the police. For example, in Newport, community mosque leaders meet quarterly with the head of local policing to discuss hate crime. They also discuss local, national and international events which affect how safe people feel and opportunities to increase interest in events for young people.
Neighbourhood teams in Newport attend events hosted by the Polish and Indian communities. The force operates a Ride Along scheme, offering members of the public a chance to join its officers on patrol to experience the reality of policing.
The force also works well with other agencies to tackle neighbourhood issues. We saw an example of this in Blackwood, where the force worked closely with partners to reduce disorder linked to alcohol abuse around the bus station. This was achieved through enforcement of Public Spaces Protection Orders and youth justice and health partner interventions and support.
In another area of the force, in response to public anxiety about released prisoners being housed in a community, the force worked in partnership with councils to install CCTV. This provided reassurance and clarity about the perceived risks from offending activity.
Gwent Police is adequate at responding to the public.
During our 2022 PEEL inspection, as part of a wider cause of concern, we recommended that the force needed to attend more calls for service within its published time frames.
The force still needs to improve the time it takes to attend calls for service. During our 2024 victim service assessment, we found that the force’s attendance was within the required time in only 51 of the 86 cases we examined.
The force has a target to attend 80 percent of emergency calls within 15 minutes and 80 percent of priority calls within one hour. It told us that it attended 73.5 percent of emergency calls within 15 minutes in November 2024, 77.9 percent in December 2024 and 77.5 percent in January 2025. It attended 86.1 percent of priority calls within an hour in November 2024, 89.7 percent in December 2024 and 90.5 percent in January 2025.
Our findings and the force’s own data demonstrate an improvement since our 2022 inspection. But the force needs to sustain this improvement and consistently attend more incidents within its published time frames.
We also found that, in most cases, it takes the force longer to attend domestic abuse related incidents than other types of incidents. The force doesn’t yet have a clear understanding of what factors are affecting this.
In our victim service assessment, we found that the force updated callers about delays in attendance in only 8 of 36 relevant cases. If the force doesn’t attend incidents within its target times and doesn’t inform victims about delays, victims may lose confidence in the police and disengage from the process. Delayed response can also result in missed opportunities to safeguard people or collect evidence to prosecute on behalf of victims who are too intimidated to support an investigation.
We found that effective supervision of response and deployment of officers was evident in only 23 of the 47 cases we reviewed.
The force has provided guidance and training to officers and staff to help them recognise when adults and children are at risk of harm, including from domestic abuse. Force policies define their obligations to notify internal experts and safeguarding partner agencies promptly.
The force has created a vulnerability app to help officers to complete and submit public protection notices (PPNs) to children’s social care services without returning to the station. Internal processes mean that it shouldn’t be possible to close incident reports without completed PPNs. However, these processes alone don’t make sure that officers submit PPNs promptly.
During our victim service assessment, we found that risk assessments had been completed when required in only 38 of 48 cases we examined. The force has reminded officers and staff about how to complete and submit PPNs. It explained to them that many referrals aren’t reaching social services at all or are late enough to delay safeguarding work.
The force policy requires officers and staff to submit domestic abuse, stalking and harassment (DASH) risk assessments either by the end of their shift or within 24 hours. In January 2025, the force told us that 76.1 percent of DASH assessments were completed and submitted when required. But this compliance rate relates to whether a DASH has been completed throughout the entire course of an investigation, which could be weeks or months long.
We also found too many examples where assessments of the likelihood of the victim coming to serious harm didn’t consider certain factors. These included stalking behaviours, weapons, increasing frequency of incidents, drugs and mental health.
If officers don’t promptly notify internal experts, local authority safeguarding partners or domestic abuse agencies, or fail to correctly assess risk, victims may come to serious harm or remain in danger for longer.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force responds to the public.
The force has implemented learning from the Manchester Arena Inquiry. It has visible senior leadership in the force control room 24 hours a day. This takes the form of a force incident manager and silver commander. It allows the force to be confident that it can understand and manage demand, as well as monitor performance.
The force has well established incident grading and deployment protocols. These are consistent with the national standards for incident recording.
The force holds daily demand, performance and priority setting meetings. This helps to make sure that staff are deployed appropriately to answer and prioritise calls for service, and that officers are despatched to deal with them promptly and effectively.
Visible wallboards show staff and managers where performance is acceptable or challenging across its 999, 101 and switchboard contact methods. Contact management staff are multi-skilled so the force can redeploy them to various functions to provide resilience in times of high demand.
In the year to 31 October 2024, Gwent Police answered 93.3 percent of its 999 calls within 10 seconds, in accordance with national standards. This included a consistent level of performance in answering at least 90 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds each month from 30 June to 31 October 2024.
Figure 1: Proportion of 999 calls answered within 10 seconds by forces in the year ending 31 October 2024
Source: 999 call answering times from BT
Note: Call answering time is the time taken for a call to be transferred from BT to a force, and the time taken by that force to answer the call.
This improvement represents a concerted and consistent focus on improving emergency call handling for the public. Callers can now be confident that if they dial 999 their call will be answered promptly.
Following our 2022 inspection, as part of a wider cause of concern, we recommended that the force needed to reduce the number of non-emergency 101 calls abandoned by callers.
In the year ending 30 September 2024, Gwent Police received 227 non-emergency 101 calls per 1,000 population. This was in line with other forces in England and Wales.
The force told us that in the 12 months from February 2024 to January 2025, on average, 12.6 percent of non-emergency 101 calls were abandoned by callers before they were answered. As set out in the 2020 national contact management strategy principles and guidance, forces without a switchboard should aim to have an abandonment rate lower than 10 percent. Although the force still needs to improve the amount of 101 non-emergency calls abandoned by callers, these findings represent an improvement since our last inspection.
During our victim service assessment, we found that in 67 of the 71 cases we examined, control room staff carried out a structured assessment of the risk of harm to victims. All 67 risk assessments were meaningful. Call handlers correctly prioritised the urgency of calls in 86 of 97 cases.
The force checked whether incidents involved repeat or vulnerable victims in 76 of 84 and 79 of 87 calls respectively.
Of the calls we examined, we found that call handlers were polite, professional and almost always provided appropriate advice on crime prevention. Our victim service assessment findings represent a substantial improvement in the quality of call handling since our 2022 inspection.
Gwent Police requires improvement at investigating crime.
During our victim service assessment, we found that only 64 of 73 cases we examined had investigation plans which met national standards. The force had taken appropriate investigative opportunities in only 71 of 99 cases. This means that realistic lines of enquiry which may have resulted in offenders being identified, apprehended or brought to justice, weren’t always followed. And we found that only 65 of 93 cases were effectively supervised.
Many sergeants and inspectors in response teams, neighbourhood policing teams, and criminal investigation departments told us that caseloads were too large. They said they couldn’t effectively oversee every investigation.
We found several examples of sergeants supervising high numbers of cases. For example, in November 2024 the force’s operational effectiveness board was told that 36 sergeants were overseeing more than 100 criminal investigations each. One response policing sergeant was responsible for 247 cases. In the force’s virtual response team, one sergeant was responsible for supervising 336 cases.
The force told us that, in October 2024, 238 out of 938 open cases required additional supervisory work prior to being finalised.
We also found several cases of rapes, assaults and sexual offences against children which hadn’t received any apparent supervisory action for weeks at a time.
The force should make sure that it effectively supervises criminal investigations and sets investigation plans. The absence of effective planning and supervision makes it less likely that the force can achieve justice for victims. And it may give offenders the opportunity to commit further or more serious crimes.
Specialist investigators across the force told us that their workloads were high but manageable. This was the case even when they were still working toward being fully qualified to professionalising investigations programme (PIP) level 2 standards. This is the minimum level of competence for investigators of serious and complex crime, recommended by the College of Policing.
But we also found that some response officers are investigating too many crimes while also being responsible for attending emergency calls. We found one officer was responsible for 64 cases, 38 of which should have been finalised.
We found too many examples of investigations into serious and complex crimes allocated to staff without the necessary training. For example, we learned of neighbourhood policing officers investigating drugs supply, conspiracy and importation offences, related to organised crime. They had no oversight or supervision from PIP level 2 investigators. Similarly, we found investigation hub staff and response officers investigating domestic abuse, stalking, sexual and serious assaults, fraud and aggravated burglaries. A number of front-line supervisors told us they hadn’t been trained to supervise these offences.
We also found that the timeliness of investigations could improve. In November 2024, the force’s operational effectiveness board heard that response officers, neighbourhood officers and investigators in the force’s investigation hub were taking substantially longer to investigate offences. When compared to the median investigation length between July 2023 and September 2024, response officers’ investigation times had lengthened from 26 to 36 days. Those of neighbourhood officers had lengthened from 30 to 38 days. And those of the investigators in the investigation hubs had lengthened from 28 to 52 days.
The force should make sure that investigators and supervisors are allocated offences which they are suitably trained to deal with. It should also make sure that they have capacity to investigate promptly.
Gwent Police solves an unacceptably small number of crimes following investigation. The force needs to understand the issue and work to achieve better outcomes for victims.
In the year ending 30 September 2024, Gwent Police recorded 47,234 victim‑based crimes. Of these recorded offences, 9.0 percent were assigned an ‘offences brought to justice’ outcome. This is within the normal range compared to other forces in England and Wales.
Figure 2: Percentage of victim-based crime recorded by Gwent Police and all forces in England and Wales by selected outcome types in the year ending 30 September 2024
| Outcome types | Force outcome rate | England and Wales outcome rate |
| 1 – Charged/summonsed | 5.9% | 5.9% |
| 2 & 3 – Caution – youths & adults | 0.2% | 0.6% |
| 8 – Community resolutions | 2.7% | 1.7% |
| 9 – Prosecution not in the public interest (Crown Prosecution Service decision) | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 10 & 21 – Prosecution not in the public interest (police decision) | 0.4% | 0.7% |
| 14 – Evidential difficulties (suspect not identified but the victim declines or is unable to support) | 1.9% | 5.8% |
| 15 – Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports police action) | 18.6% | 11.8% |
| 16 – Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim doesn’t support or withdraws support) | 12.3% | 20.4% |
| 17 – Prosecution time limit expired | 0.0% | 0.2% |
| 18 – Investigation complete – no suspect identified | 32.0% | 42.5% |
| 20 – Action undertaken by another body/ agency | 0.8% | 1.4% |
| 22 – Diversionary, educational or intervention activity | 0.1% | 0.3% |
Source: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables from the Home Office
Note: Presented data comes from the January 2025 data release and may have been revised since. British Transport Police and City of London data are excluded from the England and Wales rate. Total police-recorded crime includes all crime (except fraud). For a full commentary and explanation of crime and outcome types please see the Home Office statistics.
Figure 3: Proportion of victim-based crimes assigned a ‘charged/summonsed’ outcome (outcome 1) by Gwent Police between the year ending 31 March 2015 and the year ending 30 September 2024
Source: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables from the Home Office
Note: Presented data comes from the January 2025 data release and may have been revised since. Victim-based crimes are defined as all police-recorded crimes where there is a direct victim, such as an individual, an organisation or corporate body.
Additionally, between the year ending 30 September 2023, and the year ending 30 September 2024, the proportion of victim-based crimes assigned Outcome 15: ‘Evidential difficulties: suspect identified; victim supports action’ by Gwent Police decreased from 25.8 percent to 18.6 percent. Both values are higher than expected compared to other forces in England and Wales.
The force also has a high number of victim-based offences which haven’t been assigned an outcome. In the year ending 30 September 2024, 24 percent of victim-based crime investigated in Gwent was yet to have an outcome assigned. This was higher than expected compared to other forces in England and Wales. This means that victims are waiting for investigations into crimes committed against them to be finalised.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force investigates crime.
In our 2022 inspection report, we said that the force needed to make sure it had enough skilled staff to effectively investigate crime on behalf of the public and that its governance and scrutiny arrangements resulted in improved standards of investigation. This was an area for improvement for the force.
At that time, the force had 65 percent of its 257 accredited investigator posts filled by either PIP level 2 investigators or trainee investigators. As of 31 March 2024, the force had 64 percent of its required 256 accredited PIP level 2 investigators in post, and another 65 trainee investigators against the shortfall of 92 accredited investigators. This is a higher number of trainee investigators compared to the previous year.
This provides the force with a greater prospect of reaching its required numbers of fully trained investigators. Gwent Police told us that it expects to reach or exceed its total required qualified number of PIP level 2 investigators in 2025. This is encouraging, but the force should make sure it can retain its investigators and therefore improve its capacity to investigate serious and complex crime effectively.
In our 2022 inspection, we issued an area for improvement for the force to record the views of victims who withdrew their support for investigations. We also said that the force should document whether it had progressed or tried to progress an evidence-led approach to pursue prosecutions when victims didn’t support police action.
Encouragingly, in our 2024 victim service assessment, we found that in 23 of 26 cases, the force recorded the reason for a victim withdrawing support for a prosecution. We also found that it considered evidence-led approaches in 9 of 11 relevant cases. And the force’s finalisation process for investigations requires supervisors to explain whether evidence-led approaches had been considered.
But in our victim service assessment, we also found that, of the cases examined, the force applied correct outcomes in only 51 of 66 cases and that it effectively supervised only 59 of 72 finalised crimes. It recorded clear reasons for the use of an outcome on only 51 of 63 cases. In most cases, when it used incorrect outcomes, there were still viable lines of enquiries which it could have followed to provide a prospect of bringing an offender to justice.
Gwent Police needs to understand the true extent of its incorrect classifications. The force operational effectiveness board heard that, in October 2024, there were 1,081 offences subject to statutory time limits that were potentially beyond the six‑month time limit for prosecution. This meant that the force could no longer achieve an outcome on behalf of victims.
We found that, in cases of incomplete investigations into time-limited offences, the force policy incorrectly instructed investigators to assign an outcome blaming evidential difficulties, not a lack of timely investigation. The force told us that it used this policy between February 2023 and December 2024. Gwent Police has now corrected its policy so that it is consistent with national guidance. And it is auditing its closed cases to understand the extent of its incorrect classifications.
Gwent Police has an established victim and witness care unit. It contacts victims after they have reported a crime and after suspects have been charged to support victims through the court process. But we found that permanent staffing levels haven’t increased since the unit started in 2016, despite growing demand. Force governance meetings acknowledge that the witness care unit has a high number of cases per officer, and that there are backlogs in victim contact.
We found that there were aspects of compliance with the Victims’ Code that could improve. In our victim service assessment, we found that the force clearly recorded victim needs assessments in only 66 of 85 cases we examined. Where victims were entitled to an enhanced service, the force recorded this on only 14 of 35 occasions. It agreed victim contracts in only 61 of 74 cases. Where victims didn’t support police action, the force recorded the reasons for this in 23 of 30 cases.
In July 2024, Gwent Police told us that its compliance with the Victims’ Code was around 90 percent, with rape investigation team compliance around 98 percent. But the force can’t yet be confident of its compliance rates, which are based on a small sample of 30 cases every quarter, identified from the force’s witness management system.
The force should make sure that it effectively monitors compliance with the Victims’ Code.
Gwent Police requires improvement at protecting vulnerable people.
During our 2022 PEEL inspection, we found many Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS) applications which were outside disclosure timescales. This was an area for improvement for the force.
In July 2024, the force estimated that it met the statutory 28-day completion period 57 percent of the time. But it can’t be confident that its data is accurate. For example, the force has a dashboard to track the progress of applications, using data from its crime and incident recording system (Niche). But it still uses a spreadsheet to check the accuracy of its dashboard due to recording errors.
In January 2025, we found that 150 DVDS applications were still outstanding. Some high-risk applications dated back to September and October 2024 and hadn’t yet been researched. We also found some applications which were months old and didn’t have a staff member allocated to progress them.
The force told us it has allocated extra staff to reduce backlogs, but it had drawn these from other areas of the force. This may not be sustainable. The force uses GoodSam video interview technology to speak to some applicants, rather than visiting them in person. This can help the force contact applicants in a timely way. But Gwent Police should make sure it only uses GoodSam to make disclosures to people who have asked for information. It shouldn’t use GoodSam when making an unsolicited right to know disclosure.
Despite these efforts, the force discloses less frequently to applicants than other police forces. In the year ending 30 September 2024, just 22.1 percent of DVDS Right To Know applications to Gwent Police led to disclosures. This is the lowest rate in England and Wales.
The force should make sure that it promptly gives applicants the information they need to make decisions about their safety.
In the year ending 30 September 2024, Gwent Police made 99 Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO) applications and recorded 8,936 crimes related to domestic abuse. This means that, on average, the force applied for DVPOs in 1.1 percent of recorded domestic abuse related crimes. This was within the normal range compared to other forces in England and Wales.
However, the number of DVPOs the force applied for as a percentage of recorded domestic abuse related crimes has declined each quarter since the year ending 30 September 2023. Additionally, in the year ending 30 September 2024, only 81.8 percent of DVPO applications were successfully granted at court.
In the year ending 30 September 2024, the force used arrest to help it to investigate domestic abuse or to protect victims in 34.2 percent of cases. This is lower than the England and Wales rate of 43.4 percent.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Gwent Police recorded 1,982 stalking offences, which equated to 3.3 offences per 1,000 population. Despite this, the force applied for only one interim and one full Stalking Protection Order.
We also found that the force hasn’t secured any Sexual Risk Orders (SRO). Courts impose SROs to protect the public from the risk of sexual harm by placing restrictions on a person’s behaviour. We learned that the force’s previous eight applications for an SRO had been unsuccessful. The force is working with its legal services department to improve the quality of its applications.
Vulnerable victims can’t yet be confident that the force effectively uses protective tactics and orders to keep them safe. The force should make sure it uses the full range of powers available to it to protect victims.
The Gwent Police public protection unit is responsible for investigating offences against children and for safeguarding children. We found that most staff had completed or were undergoing the initial crime investigators development programme and the specialist child abuse investigators development programme.
But we found that supervisors and staff working in safeguarding hubs were from a range of backgrounds. Their deployment isn’t based on specific skills, experience or aptitude. The force doesn’t yet provide a structured programme of induction or training for these staff.
The force expects staff to research sometimes complex information about the neglect or abuse of vulnerable people. And it expects them to effectively participate in multi-agency discussions and safety planning. But most staff do so having learned on the job, rather than being trained to have a sound working knowledge of relevant legislation and procedures. There is also no structured mentoring process or continuing professional development programme.
The force should make sure that staff are suitably skilled and supported to effectively manage the risk posed to vulnerable victims.
The force doesn’t have enough staff in its safeguarding hubs to meet demand. In January 2025, the Eastern hub had just one of an intended three detective sergeants to participate in strategy discussions about individual cases. And, for the previous three months, it had a maximum of two decision-makers instead of three. The hub was also operating with three researchers instead of four.
In January 2025, the force only had the capacity to attend 14 of 18 strategy discussions scheduled for a particular day, even without any urgent and unexpected requests for meetings. The force told us that, where possible, detective sergeants from other public protection departments, such as the child abuse investigation team and the child exploitation team, would help. But this would affect their own supervisory workloads.
We saw a force spreadsheet which showed that, in December 2024, the force couldn’t hold 81 percent of strategy discussions within 24 hours because police representatives weren’t available. Staff told us that they often needed to do their own research into cases while participating in strategy discussions.
Officers complete public protection notices (PPNs) for people considered to be at risk of harm. They send them directly to children’s or adults’ social care services using an app called iPatrol. The force doesn’t send PPNs to safeguarding hubs for research and triaging of risk. The force told us that if serious concerns are apparent from the outset, then it contacts safeguarding partners directly. But if officers don’t identify or research less obvious safeguarding concerns effectively, the force relies on partner agencies recognising that a child or adult may be at risk and requesting a discussion. We found several examples where officers had failed to identify or notify social services about children and adults at risk of harm. This means early decision-making discussions between partners may be delayed or not happen at all.
We also found that working practices are inconsistent, with staff lacking important procedural knowledge. Safeguarding hub decision-makers couldn’t explain why strategy discussions might be prioritised as requiring a high, medium or low level of urgency. Staff told us that this was based on professional judgement rather than policy. We also found that understanding of the required timescales for holding strategy discussions according to risk level varied between each of the force’s safeguarding hubs.
Gwent Police requires supervisors to quality assure the work of their staff on a weekly or monthly basis. But monitoring of safeguarding referrals to children and adult social care is ad-hoc, with no review process. Sergeants and inspectors told us that they had limited capacity to quality assure the decision-making of their staff due to demand. Additionally, the force has removed dedicated quality assurance staff from safeguarding hubs.
The force should make sure that there is enough capacity and capability in its safeguarding hubs – and sufficient oversight of their work – to consistently and effectively fulfil its statutory obligations to discuss and mitigate the risk of significant harm to children and adults.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force protects vulnerable people.
In our 2022 inspection, we found that the force lacked dedicated, structured and focused governance for protecting vulnerable people. This was an area for improvement for Gwent Police.
The force vulnerability strategy affirms its commitment to improving its culture and operational response to protecting vulnerable people, including improving leadership, capability and capacity. The force’s National Vulnerability Action Plan tracker identifies improvement objectives and who is responsible for progression. Officers and staff regularly update actions and it is clear who has responsibility for them.
The force also has a dedicated vulnerability and violence against women and girls board. Attendees can escalate any concerns about the effectiveness of the force’s performance in this area to the operational effectiveness board.
The force has made progress in establishing a governance framework but there is still more work to do. The ‘Violence Against Women and Girls Delivery Plan 2021–24’ lists 24 improvement objectives with a strategic lead. The plan rates each objective red, amber or green according to its progress to date. But we found that the force hadn’t updated the plan since 2023.
Gwent Police needs to maintain momentum for its plans to make sure they promote clear improvements.
In our 2022 inspection, we found that the force didn’t always appropriately manage its multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC) demand. This was an area of improvement for the force.
We examined this issue again during this inspection. The force collaborates with statutory and voluntary agencies to maintain services to high-risk domestic abuse victims through its MARAC and domestic abuse steering groups. The MARAC operating protocol and action plan provide structure for improvement work. MARAC is overseen by the regional safeguarding board, domestic homicide review commissioning board, and the violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence delivery plan.
The force has created dedicated MARAC chair posts, using multi-agency tasking and co-ordination (MATAC) funding. We found that MARAC decision-making was sound, effectively identified risks to victims and contributed to safety planning and perpetrator management.
But the force needs to make sure that its quality assurance of MARAC is based on data. Although it audits MARAC monthly, the rationale for selecting themes, for example offending against older people, is random and not based on interrogation of data. The force’s MARAC Action Plan 2024 explained that MARAC administrators don’t have the capacity to keep track of the progress of safety planning actions. Additionally, the MARAC audit group reviews documentation, such as reports and minutes, but doesn’t observe meetings.
This limits the force’s oversight of how effectively MARAC is reducing the risk posed to vulnerable victims.
In October 2024, the force started using Project CARA. This allows it to offer cautions to domestic abuse offenders on the condition that they attend workshops to help them positively change their behaviour. This gives the force more options to reduce repeat offending and safeguard victims. The force will need to evaluate over time the effect of this intervention on repeated or more serious victimisation.
Gwent Police uses the MATAC process to work with partner agencies to manage and reduce the likelihood of prolific domestic abuse perpetrators causing further or more serious harm to victims. These partner agencies include probation, multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) and the Wales Integrated Serious and Dangerous Offender Management (WISDOM) project. The force also uses a recency, frequency and gravity (RFG) matrix to identify the perpetrators most likely to re-offend from data and intelligence the force holds. We saw that the matrix was used to brief local policing teams to disrupt offending behaviour.
However, the force can’t easily use the information from its command and control or crime and incident recording systems to identify or produce reports to show how many repeat domestic abuse crimes it records. This means that the force can’t understand or build public confidence in how effectively it prevents repeat victimisation.
The force needs to improve its monitoring of repeat victimisation to understand the effectiveness of its efforts to tackle this issue.
Gwent Police is adequate at managing offenders and suspects.
In the year ending 30 September 2024, 23.7 percent of pre-charge bail for domestic abuse offences lapsed into released under investigation (RUI). This is the highest rate of all forces in England and Wales. It means that some victims lose the protection of bail conditions before the investigation into the suspected perpetrator has concluded.
Figure 4: Proportion of use of pre-charge bail (PCB), RUI and PCB lapsed into RUI used following a domestic abuse related arrest by Gwent Police in the year ending 30 September 2024
Source: Data collection and analysis from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
We found that the force doesn’t have a policy, procedure or governance structure to make sure that it uses bail and RUI appropriately. The force is still refreshing and disseminating its written guidance on this issue.
The force has a bail team, which prompts investigators to provide timely updates about the progress of their investigation. The team will also, where necessary, request that bail remains in place to protect victims.
Despite this, in most cases we audited, bail had lapsed into RUI with little or no action from officers or supervisors even when they were prompted to provide updates. Most investigations hadn’t been progressed or supervised effectively enough. In some cases, sergeants and inspectors commented in reviews that investigations were being done promptly and diligently. But in fact, the investigators had failed to take meaningful actions, sometimes for weeks or months.
The elapsed time and lack of action by investigators often meant that the force couldn’t justify the continued use of bail. So in too many cases, bail conditions would no longer protect victims and witnesses from suspected offenders. In too many cases, officers hadn’t informed the victim or suspect that bail conditions would end. This means victims might be unaware that they were no longer protected by bail conditions. And suspects may inaccurately believe that restrictions upon their activity or movements still applied.
The force can’t yet easily access its data about bail or RUI. It holds data on spreadsheets, which inspectors find difficult to interpret. This makes the data hard to use to effectively identify cases posing the greatest risk of harm to victims. The force told us it intends to produce a data dashboard as part of its bail improvement plan. But this work is in its early stages.
The force should make sure that it can effectively monitor the use of bail and RUI. And it should make sure it encourages the correct use of bail to effectively safeguard victims of crime.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force manages offenders and suspects.
A dedicated superintendent leads the force’s management of sexual offenders and violent offenders (MOSOVO) teams. These teams have clear governance of performance within the public protection unit. Performance documents support this governance. They provide up-to-date information about workloads, compliance with expected timescales for visiting offenders, and the enforcement of breaches of licence conditions.
Teams are almost fully staffed and trained, with manageable workloads. The force told us there are 60 to 64 offenders allocated to each offender manager; a ratio which it anticipates will reduce with the planned recruitment of new staff. The force should continue to monitor the allocation of cases. This is to make sure it is effective in managing risks that offenders pose. And also, to assure itself about the well-being of offender managers.
Gwent Police complies with the authorised professional practice (APP) for the reactive management of offenders. We also found that the force’s visits to offenders were unannounced and made by at least two members of staff. This plays a valuable part in making sure offender managers can work safely and their visits are effective. The teams also collaborate with the police online investigation team (POLIT) to make sure that visits are timely.
The force uses the active risk management system (ARMS) to assess each offender’s likelihood of causing harm. It completes assessments every 12 months, or sooner if a significant change in an offender’s circumstances may affect the risk they pose. We found 23 assessments and 43 visits to offenders to be overdue. None of the delays were lengthy, but the force needs to make sure it does risk assessments promptly.
We found that the POLIT was almost fully staffed, with low levels of sickness absence and manageable caseloads. The force offers annual psychological well-being screening to all POLIT and MOSOVO staff. This is to mitigate the effects of their long‑term exposure to high-risk offenders and harmful online material.
We found that the force trains POLIT staff to accurately assess the risk of offending behaviour, using the Kent internet risk assessment tool (KIRAT). Additionally, POLIT has dedicated, trained digital media investigators to help officers to examine devices found during the execution of warrants. Digital media investigators can use advanced digital forensics software at the scene of searches to examine devices. This minimises the need to physically seize and remove equipment, which can be time consuming. The force told us that backlogs in requests for more in-depth examination of devices by the digital forensics unit were low; meaning that it can investigate cases more quickly.
MOSOVO teams are trained to use a range of technology available to them to monitor the activity of sex offenders and to investigate possible offences committed by them. MOSOVO staff and digital media investigators promptly examine offenders’ personal devices using specialist software. This technology makes it faster and easier to check for grooming activity or harmful content and take action when detected.
When offenders are convicted of relevant sexual offences, the MOSOVO team applies for a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO). This restricts the offenders’ ability to commit further harmful behaviour. In the year ending 31 March 2024, the force had successfully applied for 71 SHPOs, with 32 recorded breaches of orders. This is an increase from the year ending 31 March 2023, when 59 SHPOs had been issued and 23 breached.
Additionally, in October 2024, the force told us that all breaches of an offender’s licence are recorded as crimes. The force told us that 93 percent of breaches resulted in an offender being brought to justice. So the force effectively identifies and deals with offenders who fail to comply with the conditions placed upon them.
This is encouraging and suggests the force is effectively managing the behaviour of these offenders.
Staffing in POLIT includes a victim identification officer who uploads images to the Child Abuse Image Database (CAID). This helps the force to identify and safeguard victims. And it allows the force to encourage victims to support investigations if appropriate. In addition, POLIT staff have been trained to grade the seriousness of images found on devices, to aid the successful investigation of offences.
POLIT staff promptly carry out KIRAT risk assessments involving offenders accessing indecent images of children. This allows enforcement action, such as arrests and search warrants, to take place at the earliest appropriate opportunity. We found that enforcement action had taken place within the expected timescales for the level of risk presented for each case that we audited. This minimises opportunities for suspects to commit further or more serious offences.
We also found that the force notified children’s social care services without delay when it identified children linked to offenders. So it was possible to carry out safety planning and share information at the earliest opportunity.
Once action is taken against suspected offenders, POLIT officers place notification alerts on the force’s command and control system and the crime and incident recording system. So if suspects are involved in subsequent incidents, POLIT can understand whether the risks posed by or to them, from their own actions or from others, have changed. They can then take appropriate action.
In our victim service assessment, we found that 18 of 20 arrests were made at the earliest appropriate opportunity. We found that force and local level daily management meetings monitor and prioritise the arrest of suspects based on the risk they pose to the public. Where available, the force allocated officers from specialist proactive and offender management teams to make arrests.
However, response officers told us that they often don’t have enough staff on duty to arrest suspects that they are asked to apprehend. Local performance meetings monitor investigations which need to be progressed. But we found several crimes, including domestic abuse and violence offences, which hadn’t been meaningfully updated for weeks or months. Nor did they contain details of arrest attempts or documented plans to arrest or circulate the suspect as wanted on the Police National Computer (PNC).
Gwent Police is adequate at building, supporting and protecting the workforce.
Our 2022 PEEL inspection found that the force had a high number of full-time equivalent police officers on long-term sickness absence compared with other forces in England and Wales in the same year. This was an area for improvement for the force.
The force worked to improve its understanding of the causes of sickness. It now produces detailed data covering the most common types of short and long-term sickness affecting the workforce. The force also uses information held by its employee assistance programme to understand the demographics of staff most likely to use the service.
The force identified it needed to improve:
It assigned senior leaders to track progress of these key indicators.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Gwent Police had a 2.6 percent rate of long‑term sickness absence. This was within the normal range compared to other forces in England and Wales. It indicates that the force was effectively mitigating factors contributing to sickness.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Gwent Police had an average of 50.8 hours of paid overtime recorded per each full-time equivalent member of the workforce. This was within the normal range compared to other forces in England and Wales.
Despite this, the force told us that from July 2024 to January 2025 the number of officers on long-term sickness absence continued to rise each month. Gwent Police has again established a working group but told us that it hasn’t yet identified options for sustainably reducing its long-term sickness.
The force also told us that its HR and occupational health and well-being departments don’t coordinate sickness management well between them. This meant that it didn’t always use its internal expertise to interpret sickness data, or to advise about the progress of its well-being plans. The force told us it has also established separate people and culture governance boards. These include representation from the occupational health unit or well-being team. This is an encouraging step towards improving the force’s effectiveness in reducing sickness.
In our survey of the workforce, 58.8 percent (333 of 566) of respondents agreed that the force routinely uses overtime to manage demand. Many response, neighbourhood, criminal investigation department and public protection officers told us that they work on their days off to keep up with demand. But they said that gaining authorisation for overtime is bureaucratic, so they don’t bother to claim. This means that the force may not have a clear understanding of causes of stress‑related sickness.
The force should make sure it has a full understanding of the factors that affect staff sickness and take action to tackle this issue.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force builds, supports and protects the workforce.
Gwent Police has a well-being strategy and delivery plan and is working to align its provision with the best practice recommended by Oscar Kilo in its Blue Light Wellbeing Framework. The force has also achieved the occupational health foundation standards.
The force is increasingly providing a prompt response to the well-being needs of its workforce. In the year ending 30 September 2024, the average time from occupational health referral to appointment was 2.3 days. This represents an improvement from the year ending 31 March 2024, when the wait time was 8.1 days.
Gwent Police identified it needed to improve support and assistance to employees who left the force and their families, as part of the introduction of the Police Covenant . The force commissioned opt-in private healthcare and included employees’ families within its scope. The force also extended its provision of fostering and carers’ leave. This work contributed to the force gaining the Police Covenant Award at the 2024 National Police Wellbeing Awards.
The force uses the Oscar Kilo psychological monitoring programme for officers and staff in roles assessed as holding the highest risk of psychological impact.
The force has well-being ambassadors in all departments and told us that it is training more ambassadors to increase the range of support. It is also training staff as mental health first aiders.
The force has also used bio-stress reader watches to provide feedback about stress levels and sleep patterns of control room staff. The force is evaluating its learning from this trial. We look forward to seeing how the force translates the results of this initiative into well-being improvement work.
The force also has plans to provide a gym programme, blood pressure checks and alcohol awareness sessions to officers and staff.
Operation Hampshire and trauma risk management (TRiM) assessments, used to support officers, police staff and volunteers who are assaulted or exposed to traumatic events, are well established. We found that the force identifies opportunities to offer both Operation Hampshire and/or TRiM support at daily management meetings.
The force helps supervisors to fulfil their responsibilities to support injured or unwell staff. It provides training as part of the First-Line Leaders Development Programme, along with a mandatory line managers’ well-being course. But the force also told us that supervisors and daily management meetings aren’t identifying enough opportunities for TRiM assessments. Nor are staff requesting them when necessary. If officers and staff can’t access opportunities for support, they may suffer longer lasting ill-health effects. The force should make sure that it always offers trauma support to those who may benefit.
The force also needs to make sure that it understands the factors contributing to officer assaults and that it does preventative or training work. In the year ending 31 March 2024, 31 percent of police officer assaults involved injury. This was 6 percentage points higher than the average of the 42 forces in England and Wales for which we have data.
In our PEEL workforce survey, 91.2 percent (516 of 566 respondents) agreed that their line manager creates an ethical working environment. And 93.1 percent (527 of 566 respondents) agreed that their line manager challenges discriminatory behaviour.
The force told us that it has committed to the College of Policing’s pilot Leading Inclusive Teams training. The training covers challenging misogyny, racism and sexism. The force expects all staff to complete mandatory e-learning to give them a sound understanding of relevant equality legislation. We also learned that over 1,500 officers and staff had attended No Boundaries, an anti-racism and cultural understanding training. Additionally, the force works to improve workforce culture through its Step Up, Step In, and Set the Tone campaigns, which aim to equip staff to challenge sexual harassment.
The force has a retention roadmap which outlines its coaching and mentoring, training, and reward and recognition approach to retaining student officers. The force surveys student officers to gain feedback about their experience. It presents the feedback to governance boards.
To support student officers, the professional development unit has regular check-ins with officers during their first ten-weeks operational phase. The student support working group meets monthly and comprises well-being, positive action and tutor constable hub teams. The group meets to agree and implement support for newly appointed officers.
Despite this, not all sergeants we spoke to were knowledgeable about stay interviews, which should take place when members of the workforce indicate that they are considering leaving. The force told us that most officers who participated in stay interviews with HR staff and support network chairs chose to remain with the force.
There is some evidence that the force’s efforts to support students are successful. In our PEEL workforce survey, we included specific questions for new recruits. Of new recruit respondents, 76.7 percent (148 of 193) agreed that their line manager nurtures an environment of trust and confidence.
The force’s ‘Strategic Equality Plan 2024–28’ explicitly states its commitment to recruiting, supporting, developing and retaining staff from underrepresented backgrounds. A supporting delivery plan aims to promote balanced representation in the force leadership structure through mentoring and support, with promotion from the positive action team.
The force has active staff support networks, most of which have a dedicated chief officer to represent their insights at senior ranks.
The force told us that it has gained Disability Confident Leader status, so staff and officers with a disability can be confident of being supported when needed. The force has also carried out focus groups and workshops with female members of the workforce to understand barriers to their progression. Practical examples of support have included women in policing events, mock interviews and workshops with staff support networks. The force uses these to understand and challenge barriers in the workplace for female officers and staff. Additionally, the force has an internal pilot talent development programme called Evolution. In its first cohort, 9 of the 11 personnel taking part were female. The force also supports the Aspire leadership development programme.
The force has been successful in increasing the proportion of female officers through promotion processes. In the year ending 31 March 2024, 37.4 percent of Gwent Police officers were female, compared to the local population of 50.8 percent, based on the 2021 population census. In the same period, female officers accounted for 47.3 percent of promotions.
But the force acknowledges that it needs to do more to identify barriers for other underrepresented groups. The force continues to operate the Professional Action Learning Sets (PALS) programme supporting the development of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds. However, PALS has lacked any significant outcomes. Only one member of staff supported by the programme has been successfully promoted. The force told us it has recognised this and is designing its own replacement for PALS.
Gwent Police’s leadership and management requires improvement.
During our 2022 PEEL inspection, we found the force lacked understanding of how it could make best use of its capability and capacity. This affected how it managed demand.
In January 2025, the force began to move to an operating model which provided policing services to the public aligned to specific functions. This means that response, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation departments now have their own dedicated and centralised leadership. This is the case, even where some services, such as neighbourhood policing, are carried out locally.
The force has started analytical work, including modelling using ‘Process Evolutions’, to help it to respond to demand in this new model. But we found previous analysis was limited. This meant the force lacked understanding of ongoing and sometimes hidden demand, particularly in its neighbourhood policing, response and public protection teams. For example, the force has created an IT Portal so that officers and police community support officers can record their work with local communities. It also has a reporting tool that staff should use to record when and why the force requires them to carry out duties which take them away from their core roles. But many staff told us they don’t fill in the information. And the force told us that it hasn’t analysed this information yet, either to assess the effects of diverting neighbourhood policing officers away from their main duties or to identify protective or problem-solving work it should be doing based on its work involving communities.
We also learned that investigators, response and neighbourhood policing officers worked unrecorded overtime to meet demand. Some sergeants told us that they retain criminal investigations rather than overload their staff. As a result, the true numbers of investigations officers are allocated isn’t always immediately apparent.
Supervisors within public protection teams told us that they also have to support work within the understaffed safeguarding hubs. This means they can’t quality assure the work of their own staff or check that serious risk is identified and acted upon. This lack of skilled staff means the force can’t yet be confident it is effectively identifying and managing demand, in relation to protecting vulnerable people.
The force should make sure its operating model is aligned with its capacity and capability. And it needs to make sure it has enough appropriately skilled staff to provide services to the public in every department.
The force has begun to introduce a new operating model. But we learned of a lack of clear and timely communication between senior leaders and officers and staff regarding these changes.
Officers and staff told us that leaders don’t explain strategic decisions about organisational change programmes clearly enough, or far enough in advance. These decisions were communicated by email and have subsequently been explained through chief officers’ roadshow presentations. But little information was given about these changes and staff were unclear about the effect such changes would have on them.
The force’s internal employee opinion survey, concluded in December 2024, showed that only 44.6 percent of respondents felt that the force managed change well. Additionally, only 51.3 percent of respondents felt that the force kept them informed about matters which affected them. These results are similar to those from our PEEL workforce survey.
In our PEEL workforce survey, only 39.1 percent of respondents (221 of 566 respondents) agreed that change is managed well in Gwent Police. Only 52.8 percent of respondents (299 of 566 respondents) felt Gwent Police keeps them informed about matters that affect them.
The force should improve its ability to communicate with and listen to its workforce, particularly regarding changes to their working practices. It should provide context and clarity regarding the reasons for its strategic decisions.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to leadership and management.
The force has effective governance and performance management processes, with a developing use of data and analysis. It frequently uses performance data to support decision-making and produces monthly performance packs for the force governance boards. It frequently uses data in meetings, such as Pacesetter meetings which provide effective management of daily demand and priority setting.
There is an effective force management statement process. This gives the document an integral role in the force’s planning cycle. The force management statement is detailed and makes good use of available data to allow the force to understand both current and future demand. This helps the force target its resources towards meeting its priorities.
The force shows improved strategic planning. There is a new strategic Plan on a Page. This is supported by further tactical plans for each area of operations. Despite this, we did find that workforce planning decisions didn’t always mitigate consequences of their implementation. For example, we found a lack of trained response officers which required cover from neighbourhood policing teams. This then affected the capacity of these teams.
Gwent Police told us it is carrying out a skills audit to align the skills of its staff to the new operating model and effectively meet demand. The force told us that its resource management system uses outdated technology. This limits a full understanding of the capabilities of its workforce.
We found examples of this lack of understanding. For example, response trained officers and those with specialist skills, such as house entry tactics or using conducted energy devices, told us that they were regularly redeployed from their roles to assist other departments.
The force should make sure that it understands the skills of the workforce and how it can effectively use them to meet demand.
The chief officer team has undergone a transitionary year, with a considerable number of senior posts filled on a temporary basis for lengthy periods. The force is improving the visibility and clarity of its messaging to the workforce. And senior leaders are trying to understand the views and opinions of officers and staff.
The chief constable regularly attends roadshows to elicit views and communicate priorities and plans. Members of the chief officer team regularly do shadow shifts with officers and staff. The force told us that it uses its Leadership Insights meeting to consider how to improve working processes based on workforce feedback from these shadow shifts. But some officers and staff we spoke to mentioned a lack of visibility of senior operational and strategic leaders.
The force has a well-developed programme to develop the skills and confidence of its first-line leaders, but it still lacks capacity and experience at sergeant level. Gwent Police identifies and allocates leadership development options via its personal development review process. The force has adopted the College of Policing’s leadership framework which has been well received by staff. Newly promoted inspectors and sergeants receive first-line and mid-line leadership training. And the force has trained all superintendents as mentors to support fellow and aspiring leaders.
Our PEEL workforce survey results showed that of staff who had line manager responsibilities, 74.2 percent (124 of 167 respondents) felt the force trained them enough to carry out their role. But only 24.1 percent (40 of 166 respondents) told us that the College of Policing’s effective supervision guidelines had been shared with them. The force should make sure that supervisors are aware of the best leadership principles and practice.
The force collaborates effectively with South Wales Police by sharing the cost of some functions. These include firearms, joint legal services, IT, scientific services and procurement. There is a particular focus on investing in newer technology. The force also has a local benefits officer who reviews the effectiveness of local programmes.
The force is reviewing its IT capability and is working to make some processes and applications more efficient. The force relies on QlikView and Power BI while it develops its joint data analytics project. But its systems aren’t efficient and effective. For example, the force told us the processes that extract information from the force’s Global Data Store can fail due to insufficient network speed. Although Gwent Police is working on a replacement, officers and staff can’t always get quick access to the most current command and control system and crime and incident recording data.
Encouragingly, the force recognises that it lacks easily accessible aggregated data from its crime, command and control, resource management and HR systems. The force has embarked upon a joint data analytics programme with South Wales Police, using an external supplier. The force expects this work will be completed between April and September 2025.
We look forward to the benefits this collaboration will bring to the force’s understanding of its demand and skills.
Additionally, the force told us that its Process Efficiency Programme should automate some repetitive tasks associated with managing data from its command and control system (Storm) and crime and incident recording system (Niche). The Victim Services Programme will update victims of crime about the progress of investigations on the force’s behalf.
These programmes are still at the development stage but are an encouraging example of the force’s work to improve how efficiently it provides services to the public.
The force shows effective financial management by making the best use of the finance it has available. It is aligned to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and senior leaders have access to financial awareness courses. The force has good financial oversight of spending. During boards and meetings, the finance team regularly challenges funding requirements. This makes senior leaders aware of budgetary constraints so that they consider them in relation to business and strategic plans.
In the financial year ending 31 March 2024, the force received a total of £173 million in funding. This included £68 million (39.1 percent) from central government funding, £26 million (15.0 percent) from the police grant, and £79 million from precept (45.7 percent).
The financial forecasts within the mid-term financial plan are based on realistic assumptions about future funding and expenditure. For the 2024/25 financial year, the force initially forecasted a deficit of £4.62 million prior to budget and settlement. The force told us this is now £1.68 million, as the Police Settlement provided a higher level of funding than expected. This is manageable through wise spending. The five‑year approach is less confident. The plan shows that the 2024/25 and 2025/26 revenue budgets aren’t balanced. The force will need to find further savings to meet the forecasted financial deficit of £4.4 million in 2027/28 as per the financial plan.
In the financial year ending 31 March 2024, usable reserve levels stood at £29.8 million. The force told us this will decrease to £21.2 million in the year ending 31 March 2025 and is forecast to reduce further, which isn’t sustainable in the longer term. The force also told us it is taking £7 million of its revenue budget to fund essential spending. Due to financial constraints, it may be difficult to achieve higher levels of reserves. This may affect the longer-term financial picture as the only way to achieve further funding is through borrowing.
Data in this report comes from a range of sources, including:
For any charts and tables included in this report, we have listed the data source underneath.
We collect data from police forces twice a year. We agreed the design and schedule of this data collection with forces and other interested parties, including the Home Office.
Our analysts check and evaluate the collected data. We contact the force if we have any initial queries. Following this, we carry out an in-depth data review and make further contact with the force if needed. This process gives forces several opportunities to quality assure and validate the information they shared to make sure it is accurate.
We then share our analysis with the force by uploading the data to online dashboards. As they can review own and other forces’ data in context, forces can identify any notable differences or other inconsistencies.
This report presents the results from a PEEL inspection of one of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales. British Transport Police is outside the scope of this report.
Any aggregated totals for England and Wales exclude data from the British Transport Police, which means that the totals will differ from those published by the Home Office. If any other police forces didn’t supply data and aren’t included in the total figures, we will mention this.
We use data that has been collected outside our PEEL inspection to support our fieldwork.
This report contains the latest data available before the start of our inspection and the data that the force gave us during our inspection. If more recent data becomes available after our inspection fieldwork and shows that the force’s performance has changed, we will comment on this.
In this report, we sometimes present information as rates per 1,000 population in each police force area. This allows our data to be comparable across all forces. Where population data is used in our calculations, we use the latest mid-year population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.
In this report, we have included bar charts with dotted red lines to show where a force is significantly different from the average for forces in England and Wales.
The dotted lines on the bar charts show one standard deviation above and below the unweighted average of all forces. Standard deviation summarises the difference between each individual value and the average and can be used to identify extreme or rare values.
Forces that are more than one standard deviation above or below the average are considered significantly different. These forces are outside the red dotted lines on our bar charts and we have highlighted them in either a dark blue (forces above average) or light blue (forces below average) colour. Typically, 32 percent of forces will be above or below these lines for any given measure.
We survey the police workforce throughout England and Wales to understand their experiences at work. The survey is an opportunity for the whole workforce to share their views with us. It is a valuable source of information as it isn’t possible to speak to everyone in a force during our inspection.
However, the responses we receive come from a non-statistical, voluntary sample within the workforce. The number of responses also varies between forces. This means that the results may be not representative of the workforce population.
We treat the results with caution and don’t use them to assess police forces. Instead, we use the results to establish themes that should be explored further during our inspection fieldwork. The results can also be used to give more evidence and validate information from other sources.
We carry out a victim service assessment for all forces as part of our inspection programme.
We assess the service that a force provides to victims. This is from the point of reporting a crime and throughout an investigation.
We also evaluate how forces record crimes. We assess every force on its crime recording practices at least once every three years.
Details of the technical methodology for the victim service assessment.
We carry out a stop and search audit for all forces as part of our inspection programme.
Our stop and search audits allow us to evaluate how well forces use their stop and search powers. We review how many stop and searches a force carried out under section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 or section 23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. We analyse:
Gwent PEEL assessment 2023–2025
Arolygiad o Heddlu Gwent PEEL 2023–25
You can find more about Gwent Police on our dedicated force page.
The force area covers 600 square miles, including the five local authority areas of Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen.
Gwent is comprised of a mix of rural and urban communities. The area also includes key routes such as the M4 through South Wales.
Find out more about HMICFRS’s work and other inspection areas.
Find out how well other forces have performed during their PEEL assessment.
You can view the recommendations for all forces made by HMICFRS on our Progress against recommendations page. This shows how much progress has been made on these recommendations.
