South Wales Police response to HMICFRS PEEL inspection

South Wales Police has been recognised for the way it prevents and investigates crime and anti-social behaviour and for protecting women and girls in public spaces.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) graded the force’s performance across nine areas of policing in its 2023-2025 police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) inspection. The force welcomes the opportunity to improve the speed of answering emergency calls.

Today’s report rates South Wales Police as being:

• Good in preventing crime;
• Good in developing a positive workplace;
• Adequate in investigating crime, recording data about crime, police powers and public treatment, protecting vulnerable people, managing offenders and leadership and force management;
• Requiring improvement in responding to the public;
• No areas were found to be inadequate.

Chief Constable Jeremy Vaughan said:

“We welcome the scrutiny and assessment of our performance by His Majesty’s Inspectorate as it allows us to focus on areas where we need to improve and provide a better service to the communities of South Wales which is what we always strive to do.

“Protecting the public and the vulnerable is my top priority and it is pleasing to note the improvements we have made in investigating missing children and the acknowledgement of our work in protecting the safety of women and girls in public spaces which has been the source of so much public concern in recent times. We’ve made real progress in these areas and we still want to do more.

“The report also recognises our work supporting victims of crime and the fact that we bring more people to court in South Wales than the average across England and Wales.

“The Inspectorate found that we need to improve the speed in which we answer 999 emergency calls so that police officers are sent to protect victims as quickly as possible. This is a challenge for police forces across the country and while our emergency call answer rate has improved since the inspection we are committed to making further improvements. Our innovative work to improve how we risk assess calls from the public and prioritise attendance at incidents was noted.”

Mr Vaughan added:

“This inspection has taken a snapshot of our performance across an extremely wide range of what we do as organisation – from responding to emergencies, protecting those who need us most, safeguarding the vulnerable, investigating crime and working with partners to prevent harm.

“I am very proud of our achievements and want us to keep improving. We are totally committed to providing the best possible service that the communities of South Wales expect and deserve.”

Link to the full HMICFRS PEEL inspection: PEEL 2023–2025: An inspection of South Wales Police - His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk)