FAILINGS at North Yorkshire Police brought to light by the Jimmy Savile and Peter Jaconelli scandal are being addressed, a new report has found.

In December, the force apologised to victims of Savile and the former Scarborough mayor, after an internal investigation found that had they both been alive, there would have been enough evidence for officers to prosecute them.

At the time, Assistant Chief Constable Paul Kennedy said the investigation showed "no evidence of misconduct" within North Yorkshire Police, but there had been "organisational failure" around how police staff and officers were tasked to examine files.

He said then: "Our responses weren't as thorough as they should have been, in the way we searched our paper and computer records for previous reports, and appointing the right, trained people to search for historic records."

In the new report, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) noted the force had gone a long way to addressing concerns about historic records, but said more could be done to share local information with other forces through the Police National Database (PND).

The report said: "A team of eight staff was working through half a million hard copy records, disposing of paper records where appropriate, and a further two staff, under the supervision of the force records manager, were reviewing electronic records."

The report also expressed concern that some locally-held information may not be shared with other forces via the Police National Database.

It said: "We found that information held by professional standards or the professional standards integrity unit was not transferred when the sensitivity of that information diminished; the default position was not to share the information generated or held by these departments. There is a risk, therefore, that information that should be made more widely available on the PND is not."

Inspectors found information stored on the force's internal system - known as Niche - were graded and reviewed within acceptable timescales "under normal circumstances", and a growing backlog had been tackled.

The report also found: "A concerted effort has been made over the last 12 months to reduce the number of unprocessed records on Niche from 600 to fewer than 100 reports."

Inspectors also looked at work done by the force to match up records within the system of people who have come to police attention on numerous occasions, and found "at the time of inspection, there were in excess of 32,000 duplicate records and this figure was increasing".

Speaking yesterday, ACC Kennedy said the force was committed to protecting vulnerable members of society, and has excellent working relationships with partner agencies to safeguard children.

ACC Kennedy said: "Any report suggesting a child is at risk will receive a prioritised response by North Yorkshire Police.

"Through our new Operational Policing Model, we have established Serious Crime Teams in order to investigate the most serious types of crime, including allegations which include offending against children. These teams are staffed by officers who are highly trained and experienced in this specialist type of investigation."

The force has also created a cybercrime unit to investigate online offences against children, run campaigns advising young people on how to protect themselves online, and education schemes to encourage people to recognise the signs of child abuse and how to safeguard children from such behaviour.

The HMIC report looked at 12 other forces, including Humberside Police, and said "the police service must reassess their approach to child protection, or risk failing another generation".