Inspectors find 13 rape crimes missing from South Wales Police records
South Wales Police failed to record 13 rape crimes that inspectors say should have been entered on its system. His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services examined 50 reported incidents carrying the N100 classification, which police use while deciding whether a report of rape should become a recorded crime. Inspectors found 13 met that threshold. None had been recorded as rape.
What inspectors found
- N100 rape reports sampled
- 50
- Grade 2 domestic abuse median
- 1h 51m
- Use-of-force reports recorded
- 16,423
- 999 calls answered in 10 seconds
- 87.4%
Domestic abuse calls took nearly two hours
The inspection also found a sharp gap in response times. South Wales Police sets a one-hour target for grade 2 calls, which need a priority response but are not emergencies. In the year to 31 March 2026 the median response to a grade 2 domestic abuse incident was one hour and 51 minutes. The equivalent time for other grade 2 calls was 47 minutes. The domestic abuse figure improved to one hour and 40 minutes between January and May 2026, but still missed the force's target by 40 minutes.
Officers reached 45 of 58 incidents reviewed by HMICFRS within the published attendance time. The force answered 87.4 per cent of 999 calls within 10 seconds across the year, below the 90 per cent national standard. More recent figures were stronger: 91.1 per cent were answered within 10 seconds in the six months from October 2025 to March 2026.
More than 10,000 uses of force likely went unrecorded
South Wales Police recorded 16,423 use-of-force incidents in the year to 31 March 2025. HMICFRS estimated that 26,866 should have been recorded, leaving a likely shortfall of 10,443. Even the force's 18,698 arrests exceeded the recorded uses of force by 2,275. Officers must submit a form for every use of force, including handcuffing a compliant person. Some officers told inspectors that forms for lower-level uses were forgotten or left incomplete when workloads were high.
Four areas require improvement
The force was graded adequate in leadership and force management, workforce, crime prevention and safeguarding. It requires improvement in using police powers, responding to the public, investigating crime and managing fraud. HMICFRS says these grades cannot be compared directly with the previous inspection cycle because the framework and the areas examined have changed.
The report also records progress. Inspectors estimated that 94.3 per cent of stop and searches in a 105-record sample had reasonable grounds recorded, up from 86.5 per cent in the previous review. Senior leaders were praised for prioritising vulnerable people, and the force had increased its use of preventative orders. Inspector Kathryn Stone said the force had the leadership, governance and processes required to improve, but that these now had to produce better practice.