DORSET Police will be inspected soon to ensure crimes are being recorded properly.

All forces in England and Wales are being examined by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and an interim report has been released.

It concludes that a fifth of crimes, including rapes, could be going unrecorded after inspecting 13 other forces.

The police watchdog also found some offenders have been issued with out-of-court disposals, such as cautions, when they should have been prosecuted.

A Dorset Police spokesperson said: “Dorset Police is committed to recording crime allegations in accordance with the victim focused principles of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS).

“We are due to be inspected in this area in the near future and will await HMIC’s findings for Dorset before we comment further.”