Kent's crime commissioner has claimed crime is not rampant - despite records showing a 38% rise in violent crime.

Matthew Scott claims crime "remains relatively stable" even though there was an increase of more than 22,000 violent offences being reported last year.

The annual crime data report found 42% of all recorded crimes last year were violent, including robbery, sexual offences and violence against the person.

Around 90% of all these reported crimes were classed under the 30 official categories of violence against the person which range from murder to child cruelty and threats to kill.

Reports of theft and handling rose by 2,129 and there were more than 10,000 cases of vehicles or items inside being stolen.

Malicious communication was included in their record for the first time and there were more than 8,400 cases of stalking and harrassment recorded.

There was an increase of 125%, with almost 5,000 more offences of sexting and revenge porn.

However the Kent PCC told councillors at the Kent and Medway police crime panel this apparent rise in crime is actually due to better recording and new crime types being classed as violent.

Mr Scott said: "The crime survey does still show us that crime levels are stable and it is down massively over the course of a generation but where we are seeing these recorded crimes types increased for a number of reasons.

"There is a piece of work to be done by policing to better explain these things otherwise reports on the front pages will carry on painting this picture."

Mr Scott added the reporting of crime at Kent Police has improved following an inspection by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) which found the force failed to record more than 24,000 offences in 2016.

The HMIC is set to revisit the force by the end of this year to ensure it has improved from its "inadequate" rating.

Mr Scott said: "The way crime is being reported has been changed by the HMIC and that has had a massive impact on force's performance.

"It was a case of HMIC, I feel in some part, moving the goal posts but we can't blame them for everything as it is the responsibility of the force to make sure they keep up to date with training.

"We now have a much better sustainable position in the future having solved the problem once and for all."

He added a true image of the rate of crime will appear in next years' figures as the new measurements would have been in place for a longer period of time.