BBC News Online: UK: Wales

South Wales violent crime black spot

The Audit Commission's annual statistics for the police and fire services in England Wales, show that the chances of getting caught in by Gwent officers are well over 90%, with more than 50% of crimes detected.

Other parts of Wales also feature prominently in the results with the star performer once again being Dyfed-Powys Police.

The force which polices a huge, yet largely rural area, has kept up its tradition and can boast the lowest number of crimes - 50 per 1,000 of the population - and the highest detection rate at 64.2%.

Elsewhere, the South Wales Police area has a relatively high crime rate and North Wales, relatively low. Both forces have average detection rate figures.

Looking at fire services, Mid and West Wales topped the tables with 99.7% of calls answered within target times - a higher figure than any other brigade in Wales or England.

But colleagues in the North Wales service were in the bottom quarter of emergency response times with a figure of 94.7%.

North Wales is also the area of Wales which spends least on fire cover - under £30 per head of the population which compares with nearly £35 in Mid and West Wales.

Across England Wales, there was an average of 7.5% fires per 1,000 people but figures for Welsh brigades were all above average varying from eight per 1,000 in north Wales to 12.2 per 1,000 in south Wales.