Police attacked for wrongly writing off thousands of crimes Nick Herbert, the policing minister, said: "Recording crime properly is vital if the public are to have confidence in the police. We commissioned this report to shine a light on recording practices and there are issues in some forces which need to be addressed. We want people to have accurate and clear crime data so they can hold their local force to account and make sure the right action is being taken to drive down crime in their area. Incidents are classified as "no crime" having taken place if police feel there is not enough evidence to prove a crime has actually taken place. The HMIC review found that 14 per cent of those written off across England and Wales should have been recorded as a crime and investigated. However, it stressed the situation is improving and the current 86 per cent accuracy rate is far higher than the 64 per cent discovered in a similar review in 2009. The review looked at almost 5,000 records from the 43 forces across England and Wales and British Transport Police. It looked at samples of cases in which each force had decided there was "no crime" to investigate. Only one force, Thames Valley, got the decision right on every occasion checked. Vic Towell, an assistant inspector at HMIC, said: "The findings are indicative and provide assurance that the crime figures published by their police forces are being probed. Whilst the majority do well, the variation between the best and worst remains too wide and needs to improve. Some 16 per cent of violent "no crimes" should have been recorded as offences but the report said it was reassuring that 'no-crime' compliance for rape offences is higher than the average at 90 per cent "which indicates that forces are giving greater scrutiny to their most serious crimes." The inspectors found only a low number of crimes were recorded from anti-social behaviour cases and the identification of repeat, vulnerable and intimidated victims was "poor" at the first point of contact. They were also concerned that many records still showed no attempt by police to identify repeated incident of anti-social behaviour. In 2010, the watchdog said police were ignoring one in four reports of anti-social behaviour. It examining the issue in the wake of the case of Fiona Pilkington, who killed herself and her severely disabled daughter Francecca, 18, after years of abuse from yobs. HMIC said further work was needed later this year as the inspectors only studied a small sample of cases. Mr Herbert added: "We have been very clear that much of what is described as 'anti-social behaviour' is actually crime, and where this is the case forces should treat it as such, and give victims the service they deserve," he said. Chief Constable Steve Finnigan, the lead on performance management for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), added: "The UK is regarded as having one of the most rigorous crime recording regimes in the world and it is encouraging that this review by HMIC demonstrates that national crime statistics are more robust than ever. Nevertheless, there is always scope for improvement and Acpo continues to lead work to strengthen the accuracy and consistency of recording decisions.