Overall crime statistics are “going in the right direction”, according to Dorset’s Police and Crime Commissioner – despite a rise in violence, stalking, harassment and sex attacks.

The comments from David Sidwick come after the Office for National Statistics published data that showed there was a 26.5 per cent rise in sex offences across the county in the two years to June 2022.

Stalking and harassment offences increased by 14.4 per cent whilst violence with injury increased by 6.9 per cent.

The ONS report suggested the county had experienced a “rise in crime notably lower than other parts of the country”. Mr Sidwick said he was “really pleased” to see that Dorset has gone up to sixth in the ratings for being one of the safest counties.

In total there were 2,437 sex offences reported to Dorset Police in the year ending June 2022, 6,010 incidents of stalking and harassment, and 6,265 violence with injury offences.

Mr Sidwick said the county was “very safe” but “accepted there might be an issue with how people feel when they look at those statistics”.

He said “more needs to be done” to tackle the crimes and said the offences had already begun to reduce in certain areas of the county.

He added: “Certainly when you look at the actual crimes, which people tell me they want sorted, it very clearly is the ones that are going in the right direction, the anti-social behaviour, the fact that we are still safe from the point of view of knife crime.

“I’m not happy that (rape and sexual offences) have increased. For that reason I have spoken to the force and we are looking at what else we can do. That’s the direction of travel that I’m interested in. There’s more work to be done but we are very much going in the right direction as you can see from the overall numbers.

Chief Constable Scott Chilton said: “It is important to note that overall crime has risen over the last two years across the entire country and Dorset is no different. These statistics compare July 2019 to June 2022 during a time when the country was battling the pandemic, which saw a rise in domestic violence and sharp increase in visitor numbers to Dorset due to restrictions on international travel.

“We have worked hard over the last two years to ensure we are putting the resources we have into the right places so we can tackle those crimes that matter the most to our communities and ensure victims are supported.

“Extra investment has also been put into rural policing, neighbourhood teams, child protection and investigation of sexual offences. We have made a raft of improvements and changes to the way we investigate sexual offences, as well as stalking and harassment crimes and this has led to us being able to provide a better service to victims overall.

“The force has strived for improvement over the last two years.

“Crime rates in Dorset have risen slower than elsewhere in England and Wales, and our efforts during this time have seen Dorset move from ninth to the sixth safest county in the country. We know we still have work to do.”