GLOUCESTERSHIRE'S Police and Crime Commissioner has said that crime figures for the county are accurate.

Responding to comments from the former head of the Metropolitan Police, Lord Stevens, that some forces ‘routinely write off crimes’, Martin Surl said it definitely did not happen in Gloucestershire.

“Lord Stevens may be happy to suggest police have been fiddling crime figures for years but I don't appreciate him tarring other forces with the same brush,” said Mr Surl.

“I am assured by the Chief Constable that her recording of crime has been reviewed and she has confidence in the figures”.

The former Scotland Yard Commissioner, now Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, who ran the Metropolitan Police for six years, made his comments to the House of Commons Home Affairs select committee.

He claimed figures were fiddled throughout his time in the police and suggested every single force should be subject to an independent investigation into crime figures - both detection and recording of crime - as a matter of urgency.

“Lord Stevens is entitled to reflect on his own experiences but I can reassure him and the public of Gloucestershire that this Police and Crime Commissioner is not interested in spinning figures for personal gain”, said Mr Surl.

“This is the sort of thing which made people suspicious of having commissioners in the first place.

"Maybe some might find spinning statistics too much of a temptation to resist but as an independent I have no need to give in to political pressure of any kind.

“The fall in crime is never just the result of good policing, important though that is. It’s due to the work done by all the other agencies and elements who strive together to make our communities safer and stronger.

"Headline figures don’t always tell the full story and I don’t want to rely just on figures as an indicator of how peaceful or otherwise Gloucestershire is."