GWENT Police have been criticised for taking too much time to put arrest details and court results on the police national computer (PNC).

The focus on police procedures across the UK following the Soham case highlighted criticism of the Gwent force by HM Inspector of Constabulary earlier this year.

Gwent's chief constable, Mike Tonge, is set to tell Gwent Police Authority on Friday that the HMIC criticism of Gwent's procedures echoed the condemnation of Humberside Police over its handling of the Ian Huntley inquiry.

The Bichard Inquiry was set up by the Home Office in the wake of the murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in Soham.

Like every other force across the country Gwent had to scrutinise its own relevant procedures.

In most cases it is is up to standard but weaknessses which were highlighted in the HMIC inspection echo the Bichard Inquiry's criticism.

The Bichard report revealed Huntley had been accused of a string of sex offences, but none was logged on the PNC.

Humberside Police had also failed to update PNC records to include Huntley's alias surname of Nixon.

But Chief Inspector Julian Knight, who is addressing the issues with Gwent Police, said the concerns about his force - outlined in a report by HMIC, this year - were different from those of Humberside.

He said: "The Bichard Report was about difficulties vetting Huntley following his application for school caretaker. That same thing wouldn't be a problem here.

"The fact an individual went to magistrates court and was found guilty of burglary will go on the PNC, but it may take eight or nine days. If you're doing an inquiry later on, you will know it took place."

Chief Insp Knight said: "Our target for putting details of persons arrested on the PNC is 48 hours. We are probably achieving that in 68 per cent of cases.

"But from October 4 we are introducing a new internal procedure which means we'll capture the information a lot quicker, so 100 per cent of arrests will go on the computer within 48 hours."

He added: "Significant delays in putting court results on the PNC is a problem nationally.

"But we are in the final stages of a collaboration with Gwent magistrates courts to have our staff in their office in Cwmbran to collate information and put it directly onto the PNC.

"At the moment it's sent electronically and can take two to three days to get to us.

"Our target is to get 50 per cent of all court case results within seven days and, over the next six months, move towards 100 per cent within seven days."