Police and Crime Commissioner Angus Macpherson has welcomed the latest figures.

He said: “I am reassured to see this small percentage increase in recorded crime in Wiltshire is well below the national trend of 15 per cent.

“Wiltshire Police is consistently working to improve recording practices, and this has been reflected in today’s figures with the increase in recorded crime greatly slowing and the data stabilising. Although I continue to highlight the increases in crime as being reflective of recording practices, at no point am I, or the Chief Constable becoming complacent.

“The force has recognised the increase in domestic burglary and vehicle crime, and I am pleased to see the force is robustly responding to the concerns that I and the wider community have about these crimes.

“I have challenged the Chief Constable and his team frequently on burglary as this increase is not acceptable, and while detection rates are increasing more improvements need to be made.

“The force has responded well and since these statistics were collected in September there has been a substantial number of arrests made and this appears to have reduced current burglary numbers.”

The figures for domestic burglary rose by 69 per cent compared to the same period last year - 1,353 actual incidents in 2016 compared to 2,314 in 2017 – this means around people in every 1,000 in Wiltshire were burgled which is lower than the national average of approx 4 in every 1,000.

He added the rise was primarily down to how the force record break-ins; since April 2017 the way burglary is recorded has changed nationally and new categories are not directly comparable to the previous ones i.e. shed break-ins are now classed as residential burglaries (home/property break-ins), whereas before they were categorised as non-dwelling (non-home/property break-ins).