WEST Yorkshire Police has introduced measures to record crime better, but the force admits there is more to be done.

A report by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Tom Winsor, revealed yesterday, has heavily criticised all police forces for “inexcusably poor and indefensible” under-recording of UK crime.

He found that more than 800,000 crimes were not being recorded, with under-recording of sexual offences being 26 per cent. The national rate of wrong decisions to cancel crime records for rape was 20 per cent.

In West Yorkshire, HMIC analysed 260 incident records, between November 2012 and October 2013. It found that 221 should have been classed as crimes but the force had only recorded 150. Of 35 no-crime records for rape offences, the report found only 23 met the Home Office requirement.

West Yorkshire Police Assistant Chief Constable Russ Foster conceded it was essential that the public of West Yorkshire felt reassured that crime was recorded accurately and properly investigated.

He said: “Many of the recommendations relate to issues we have already identified and have plans in place to address as part of our commitment to achieve the highest standards of crime and incident data integrity.”

He said the Force had improved its central audit capability, introduced processes to identify repeat and vulnerable victims, brought in a process to record crimes at the first point of contact with victims of serious sexual offences including rape, and had in place an independent audit process to ensure all victims are believed.

He added that the force had improved its central audit capabilities and said: “We recognise that improvements still need to be made in some areas and we are determined to ensure the quality of our data is of the highest standard.”