CRIME reports in Dorset rose by 15 per cent last year - but it's down to increased confidence in the force, a top officer said.

The figures, which concern the financial year 2015/16 - April 1 2015 to March 31 2016 - were released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The increase in crime reported to police was predicted by the force in July last year.

Deputy Chief Constable James Vaughan said: “The increase is largely due to people’s enhanced confidence in reporting crime to us, the improvements we have made in our crime recording systems and improved compliance with Home Office Counting Rules.

"These factors have led to Dorset following the national trend of higher crime statistics.

“Dorset Police has also been working with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and the police and crime commissioner to ensure we fully meet the complex and regularly changing Home Office rules on how we record crime.

"This followed recommendations made by HMIC in 2014.”

One such change was the inclusion of malicious communications into the category of ‘harassment’ and as a result into the broad category of ‘violent crime’. This contributed to a 37 per cent rise in total violent crime, DCC Vaughan said.

Online crime reporting has also made people more likely to report things that they previously would not have, the officer said.

Sexual offences are also showing an increase of 20 per cent in line with national trends.

It is believed that the rise reflects the work of the Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT).

Officers from POLIT seek out offenders targeting children on the internet.

DCC Vaughan added: “Our safeguarding activity and our victim-focused approach has led to more people coming forward to report crimes affecting the most vulnerable in the county.

"We make no excuse for encouraging people to report such crimes - whatever impact that has on statistics.

"It is clear this is the biggest rise in recorded crime for many years. However, with many changes over the last year - both to the national recording rules all police forces follow and our internal systems - they cannot be fairly compared like-for-like with previous years. Therefore, we should consider 2015/16 as a new, more accurate baseline."