Greater Manchester Police inspection report 'paints worrying picture'

Priti Patel has written to Greater Manchester's mayor and chief constable following the publication of the HMIC report

Failures by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to record about 80,000 crimes in a year "paints a worrying picture", the home secretary has said.

In a letter to the force's chief constable and the region's mayor, Priti Patel said she was "deeply concerned" after an inspection found failings in GMP's crime recording.

But Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham accused her of failing to give "a fair and balanced picture" of GMP.

GMP has been approached for comment.

In a review by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), it found England's second-largest police force had failed to record about 220 crimes a day in the year up to June 2020 and closed cases without proper investigation.

'A worrying picture'

In a letter to the mayor and GMP's Chief Constable Ian Hopkins, the home secretary said the "report paints a worrying picture," adding "most troubling was the inspectorate's finding of a cause for concern in relation to safeguarding of the most vulnerable victims".

She added: "These findings risk further eroding the confidence and trust that the people of Greater Manchester are entitled to have in their force's ability to keep them safe."

Andy Burnham said the home secretary "failed to provide a fair and balanced picture of what has been happening within GMP"

In his response, Mr Burnham said, while he was also "deeply concerned" by the findings, he added "there have been a number of important points of progress which were not reflected in your letter".

"While I can assure you I take the recent report as seriously as you do, I think it is important that we recognise the successes that police forces achieve," he said.

"It is important to remember that, throughout all the challenges described above [in the letter], GMP have been dealing with one of the largest and most complex investigations in its history into the Manchester Arena attack."

Following the publication of the report, domestic abuse charity Independent Choices in Greater Manchester described the findings as "extremely shocking" while Women's Aid said it was also alarmed by the watchdog review.

Jane Gregory, from the Salford Survivor Project, said failing to report domestic abuse would have "a knock-on effect for future victims".

A further inspection of GMP will take place in six months.

Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to [e-mail]