ALMOST 100 data breaches have been recorded by North Yorkshire Police in recent years, making it England's sixth least secure force.

Big Brother Watch found three workers were dismissed from the force between 2011 and 2015, for “unauthorised use of a police system”, “misuse of a police system”, and accessing police systems “without a policing purpose”.

Officers and police staff had also faced warnings and management action after a laptop was stolen and a memory stick - which had not been securely encrypted - was lost, while action was also taken against one police worker who sent restricted or confidential material to insecure email addresses. However, the force member responsible for a similar breach faced no further action.

One of the 98 incidents between 2011 and 2015 saw an officer leave a “paper file containing sensitive data” in a property raided by police, but “no action was taken as the officer could not be identified”.

Three incidents led to police workers being given final written warnings, while seven were given “management advice” or “management action” for the breaches.

Acting Chief Constable Tim Madgwick, said the fact that three workers had been sacked by the force proved police took data security seriously.

He said: “The figures are a reflection of how seriously we take breaches of the Data Protection Act.

"Given the confidential nature of police work and the millions of pieces of information that we hold, we will not tolerate the misuse of this information or anything that comprises it.

"All staff, officers and volunteers receive strict instructions about how information, and devices that hold this information should be stored, accessed and protected and if this is breached, we will take action.”

Nationally, the report found there had been at least 2,315 data breaches by police staff between June 2011 and December 2015, with some information shared with third parties, and some officers accessing systems for financial gain.

A spokesman for Big Brother Watch said: “The job of the police is to protect us and in a digital society that also means protecting our data. We need to be able to trust those in authority with our personal information."